Learn to cook traditional local dishes through the guidance of local moms!

Tokamachi and Uonuma in Niigata Prefecture are regarded as areas with heavy snowfall. Before the use of snow removal equipment and systems, the city is covered in snow and closed for nearly five months in a year. One of the distinct food culture of this region is the various effort to preserve the bounty of the mountains gathered from spring to autumn and stored as salted, dried and fermented, in order to survive the long winter when there is no harvest.

Moreover, the land is surrounded by the Shinano river (the longest river in Japan) and the mountains have abundant water and people had been receiving blessings from nature such as edible wild plants, nuts and fish every season since the Jomon period. The abundant water and the temperature difference during the seasons make this area suitable for rice production hence, the lands have been actively cultivated with rice and vegetables.

Many families who live here use the land near where they live to grow vegetables. Most of the time, their harvests are more than enough for them to consume!

Nowadays, most ingredients are available anywhere in Japan at any time but the ingredients used in this cooking session are seasonal ingredients such as freshly picked vegetables and edible wild plants, flavored with local seasonings and cooked in traditional methods that make it a special feast to be enjoyed in this area only and at a specific period.