Now For Something Different

All these Fujis driving you nuts?

Don’t worry, just two more to go and then the trip to Aichi is done with. In the meantime, how about a little dose of the sweet potato man?

Just like the ice cream vans you see in Britain, sweet potato man drives about playing a tune. He has a fairly ordinary truck with one fabulous addition - a brazier mounted on the back, from which he serves sweet potatoes roasted in tinfoil.

In Fuji, the sound of the sweet potato man is spooky enough. But these things vary from region to region. I was most disturbed to discover that, in Aichi, you can hear the sweet potato man even if it is a Friday night and you are on the 5th floor of a hotel room with the windows shut.

Fortunately (?) for you, I opened the window to record half a minute of this eerie Japanese tradition.

And here it is -

*shudder*

Wednesday, January 31st, 2007 Japan, Japanese Culture, Japanese Traditions Trackback URL for this entry