SUSANNE SENSEI: We are the Champions (for now!)

At the Obon festival, Emi and a few other locals mentioned that the town would soon challenge the World Record for the longestyakitori stick. The town was planning to make an 11 meter long yakitori at the Hidakagawa Summer Festival and Hanabi (Fireworks) Taikai(Competition) in Nakatsu. I was told it was less about getting the record and more about promoting some of the local products which just happen to be a special type of charcoal and horo horo, a type of game foul. Well regardless of the motivation behind it, I was like "I have to see that!" So, on Monday we left work a little bit early and got dropped off at the dome in the village of Nakatsu which is now part of Hidakagawa-cho. The drive up there took us through the mountains and past three of the schools I will be teaching at come September. It was especially misty that day up in the mountains and I was awestruck by the beauty of this area.

When we arrived at 4 pm, the grill was going and there was a lot of local and regional media around the cooking area. In fact, it was quite a large media scrum for the event but heck, it is a world record after all! There were a good mix of young and old participants for the preparation and cooking of the yakitori stick. I did not envy their position as it was already super hot and humid that day and standing by those hot coals made it even hotter. While waiting for the cooking to begin, I looked at the power ranger children's show, wandered around the festival stalls and bought a kakigori (crushed ice with syrup) to cool down. I met Emi's uncle who kindly gave me some of the special charcoal and one of her good friends . Also, the mayor, deputy mayor, and many of the BOE staff members were there to watch the record be smashed. Tamaki-san, the tourism dept. head, was there as he was part of the organizing team. I also learned about a chainsaw craving festival in Ryujin this November from one of the organizers. Sounds interesting...

Back to the yakitori stick. First they helpers had to load the horo horo onto the 11 ft. long bamboo stick. That took about 45 minutes then it was time to lift it up and put it on the coals which had to be fanned first. As it was cooking, it was turned and then finally after another 45 minutes or so, it was time to prove that the longest yakitori stick in the world had been cooked. So, all 30 or so cooks lifted it up and the judges ruled that Hidakagawa-cho was the world champion complete wtih a crystal yakitori trophy as proof. The media attention was huge and as you can see many of the cooks were hamming it up for their benefit! So for at least the next two weeks, the people of Hidakagawa-cho can say that "We are the Champions of yakitori!"