31st October 2021
From around October through to about February, in some places in Japan, you can still hear the sound of the sweet potato seller who drives his van around calling for people to come to buy his freshly baked1 sweet potatoes. These potatoes are baked in a small oven which is in the back of his van.
Sweet potatoes grow in many countries that have a warm climate2 and in Japan they are grown in the south or on the Pacific side of the country. They grow tall with huge3, shiny, tropical leaves. In the past they were sometimes eaten when the rice crop4 failed5. Nowadays, as with6 a lot of produce7 in Japan, sweets potatoes are quite expensive.
These potatoes are sold all year round but you will see more in the autumn*. People bake them in the oven or steam them and many people eat them plain8, without anything such as butter.
In modern Japan, sweet potatoes are often included in the ingredients9 of confectionery10, for example tarts and cakes and you will see more of this type of confectionery in the autumn.
An autumn event for some children at primary school or pre-school11, is to go to fields with their class and dig up sweet potatoes. While they are doing that, their grandparents might be sitting back drinking 焼酎 (shōchū). It’s a drink similar to vodka and there are two main types – shōchū made from rice and the more famous one – shōchū made from sweet potatoes.
autumn* – ‘autumn’ is British English. In American English ‘autumn’ is called ‘fall’.
4. ‘crop’
<Example sentences>
■ The main crop in this area is wheat.
■ They try to rotate the crops in the fields every year.
■ Most of the farmers were happy with their crops this year.
6. ‘as with’
<Example sentences>
■ As with yesterday’s work, I’m having some problems today.
■ When snowboarding, as with skiing, you can go very fast downhill, so please be careful.
7. ‘produce’
<Example sentences>
■ Fresh produce from farms near here is delivered to our shop early every morning.
■ That supermarket usually has good produce.
9. ‘ingredients’
<Example sentences>
■ Please give me a list of the ingredients I need to buy to make the cake.
■ Look at the ingredients written on the side of the packet!
10. ‘confectionery’
<Example sentences>
■ Anko is confectionery that often is served with the tea in tea ceremonies.
■ That shop sells confectionery from other countries.
■ Where can I buy some good Japanese confectionery?
■ Can you only buy sweet potatoes in the autumn?
■ How do you cook them?
■ I sometimes see sweet potatoes in shops in our country now. ～.
■ Do they grow sweet potatoes in your country?
■ If you eat regular baked potaoes, not sweet potatoes, what do you put on them?
■ When I was at primary school we went to a field to dig up sweet potatoes. ～.
- ‘baked’ means something that is cooked in an oven without much oil or water.
- ‘climate’ means the general weather in an area.
- ‘huge’ means very big.
- ‘crop’ means plants that are grown on a farm.
- ‘in this meaning ‘failed’ means didn’t grow well. Didn’t grow into food to be eaten.
- ‘as with’ means ‘similar to’ , ‘like’
- as a noun ‘produce’ means plants grown to be sold, usually plants grown on a farm.
- in this meaning ‘plain’ means without adding anything to them while eating them.
- ‘ingredients’ means the things used to make something, usually when talking about food.
- ‘confectionery’ means many types of snack food that is made with sugar. For example candies (British English – sweets), chocolate, cakes, tarts and other baked things.
- ‘pre-school’ or ‘preschool’ is the place children go to from the ages of two to five in many countries or three to six in Japan before they go to primary school.