What comes to mind when you think of foods you want to eat in autumn?
For the writer, it’s “sweet potatoes.”
In Yakage Town, participating restaurants in the Sweet Potato Festival: Imotabi IN YAKAGE are serving sweet potato dishes from Tuesday, October 29, 2024, through Friday, January 31, 2025.
I went around and tried sweet potato dishes packed with each restaurant’s own special touches.
The information provided is as of the article’s publication in December 2024. Please note that it may differ from current information.
What is the Sweet Potato Festival: Imotabi IN YAKAGE?
The Sweet Potato Festival: Imotabi IN YAKAGE features 23 participating restaurants in Yakage Town.
See the image below for details of the participating restaurants.
Get prizes based on the number of stamps collected
At each participating restaurant, you can get one stamp for every 100 yen (tax included) spent on sweet potato menu items.
Stamp cards are available at:
- Participating restaurants
- Roadside Station Sanyo-do Yakage-juku
- Yakage Visitor Center Tonya
Once you collect the required number of stamps, you can exchange them for an original notepad or an original clear file.
Present your stamp card at Yakage Visitor Center Tonya, the prize redemption location.
Prizes are available while supplies last.
Yakage Visitor Center Tonya is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Yakage Visitor Center Tonya is closed from December 30 to January 2.
▼The required number of stamps and the prizes awarded at each milestone are as follows.
| Number of stamps | Prize |
|---|---|
| 15 stamps | 1 original notepad |
| 30 stamps | 1 additional original notepad |
| 45 stamps | 1 original clear file |
| 60 stamps + drawing for 10 winners | Yakage specialty products set |
Limited-edition capsule toy machine (Yakage Visitor Center Tonya)
A limited-edition capsule toy machine is set up at Yakage Visitor Center Tonya. Each turn costs 200 yen.
The first series has 10 items in total.
| Item | Types |
|---|---|
| Button badges | 4 |
| Magnets | 3 |
| Mirrors | 3 |
The second series, featuring “limited-edition masking tape,” is scheduled to arrive in mid-December.
Enjoy it throughout the entire event period
The restaurant menus include items suited to eating on the go, such as gelato and sweet potato lattes, as well as hearty dishes like pudding à la mode and sweet potato set meals.
Note that some restaurants have a daily limit on the number of servings.
As a Yakage Town resident, I’ve visited many restaurants, making reservations or changing the date. Before a day off, I get excited thinking, “Maybe I’ll go eat at ___.”
Sweet potato dishes not listed in the brochure are also included. These dishes are also featured on the official Instagram account for the Sweet Potato Festival: Imotabi IN YAKAGE.
I plan to enjoy the Sweet Potato Festival: Imotabi IN YAKAGE until it ends on January 31, 2025.
Sweet Potato Festival: Imotabi IN YAKAGE menu items
Here are three of the dishes I tried.
Sweet Potato Creme Brulee (Shokukobo Tuo)
At “Shokukobo Tuo,” about a five-minute drive west of Yakage Shopping Street, you can enjoy sweet potato creme brulee.
- Price: 800 yen (tax included)
- 5 servings per day
The sweet potato creme brulee can be ordered on its own. But since only five servings are available each day and I also wanted to try Shokukobo Tuo’s lunch, I made a reservation before visiting.
Both the daily lunch I chose and the sweet potato creme brulee were delicious.
The rich sweet potato paste beneath the scorched caramel paired perfectly with vanilla ice cream, steamed sweet potato, and caramel nuts.
Yakage Daimyo Sweet Potato Kintsuba (Okashidokoro Seihouan)
I have a strong memory of eating a hard kintsuba, so I never thought of kintsuba as something delicious.
I decided to try one because my coworkers said they wanted to eat kintsuba, I often see on TV, in magazines, and on social media that kintsuba is a crowd-pleaser, and “Okashidokoro Seihouan’s kintsuba is delicious too.”
When I tried it, the carefully strained sweet potato and soft skin made for such a smooth, mellow texture that I was enchanted. It was like eating sweet potato itself.
It’s a dish I can recommend even though I used to dislike kintsuba.
- Price: 346 yen for 2 (tax included)
A sweet potato bread that looks just like the real thing!? (Samurai ga Koisuru Panya)
At Samurai ga Koisuru Panya, which sells “premium” fresh bread, I bought a sweet potato bread as a treat for myself.
The “sweet potato bread that looks just like the real thing!?” is apparently a Korean-origin goguma bread.
It’s about the size of your palm. When I tried it, I found sweet potato kneaded into the dough. It was also packed with sweet potato paste inside, making it irresistible for sweet potato lovers.
- Price: 300 yen each (tax)
- 15 per day
The chewy texture, reminiscent of premium fresh bread, and the rich sweet potato paste were incredibly delicious.
From the Writer
If you look closely, the stamps applied at each restaurant have numbers on them. These numbers correspond to the numbers before the restaurant names in the brochure. In the diagram below, 3 is “Okashidokoro Seihouan,” 5 is “Samurai ga Koisuru Panya,” 21 is “Yakageya INN & SUITES,” and 14 is “Nama Crepe tabi.”
There is still time, so I’d like to try some more.
Why not enjoy Yakage Town through its delicious food?
Satsumaimo Fest Imotabi in YAKAGE Information
| Name | Satsumaimo Fest Imotabi in YAKAGE |
|---|---|
| Dates | Satsumaimo Fest Imotabi in YAKAGE will be held from October 29, 2024 to January 31, 2025 Business hours and closing days vary by participating establishment, so please check their website or call. |
| Location | Yakage Town |
| Participation fee (tax included) | Food and drink costs apply |
| Website | Satsumaimo Fest Imotabi in YAKAGE |
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