So corny!

I'd say this little story is a good indication of the food frenzy that erupts in Japan sometimes. The media has a tremendous power on the eating public and can make a business' month by reporting on it.

I had been working, up until a couple of weeks ago, in a neighboring town called Morimachi. Morimachi means Forest Town and it pretty much lives up to it's name. Very sparse and loosely populated area. Indeed probably the biggest economic driver here is the many tea farms and the corn for which they are quite famous. Well about a month ago, on the early morning drive I could see a few private farmer's stalls starting to sell corn on the cob. Wanting to partake in some farm fresh corn, I decided to pick some up on the way to work before my class drew to a close.

Unfortunately the day before I decided to do so-- they ran a spot on local TV about the famous corn from the very stall pictured above (that I also happened to chose for my corn purchase) called Kan-Kan Musume. Well the morning I decided to stop by and pick up some corn, the usually un-busy stall was packed with people waiting to buy the reported corn. I waited for 10 minutes for a new delivery to make it in from the farm, but it was time to get to work- so I had to settle for some cheaper corn they had still available. I missed out on the popular product because of the food frenzy-- but the funny thing is that the cheaper corn I 'settled for' was very delicious and sufficient for my tastes!

That's Japan, I guess!