The best way to discover little-known sights and make even familiar places feel brand new,

is to go exploring by bicycle.

This time, we'll be riding through Yamagata.

From a spectacular coast to beautiful rivers and high forested mountains,

Yamagata has every kind of scenery.

At the end of autumn, we're seeing the first snows of winter.

The unpredictable weather can be a challenge,

but it's worth it for the food you can only get in this season.

We burn off these fields to plant turnips.
Then winter snow makes them sweeter.

In the lull before the heavy snows begin, people traditionally busy themselves with creative activities.

This is the season when salmon come home to spawn.

Salmon used to be highly prized.
If you caught one, you'd invite all your relatives.

So good!

Nature here can be harsh, but also generous with her bounty.

Come with us now, on a 425-kilometer ride through Yamagata.

Yonezawa City is in the south of Yamagata.

We start our trip from this shrine, dedicated to a historic local warlord.

Our cyclist is Bobby Judo, from Florida in the USA.

Bobby lives in Kyushu, in the south of Japan.

His work on TV and other media is mostly about food and cooking.

Just starting out on the first day of our Yamagata cycling trip,

which is one I've been looking forward to for a long time.

One of the good things about the colder parts of Japan

is that they're very well known for having delicious food, whether it's fish or vegetables.

So I'm looking forward to getting on the road, seeing the sights, and finding some really good things to eat.

Alright, let's get started.

On the first day of this four-day trip, Bobby will ride from Yonezawa through the Yamagata Basin to Sagae.

The second day will take him across the Shonai Plain, over mountains to the sea.

And on the third and fourth days, he'll ride back from the coast up the Mogami River.

His goal is to discover cuisine and ingredients unique to Yamagata.

It's a super brisk morning.

Look at the mist rising off the water.

Right in the end of autumn.

The Mogami River runs through Yamagata from south to north, watering much of its fertile farmland.

The rice paddies here are finished for the year.

There's some kind of big statue up here on the right.

What is that?

Oh, it's some kind of bird statue?

There's another one of those bird things up here.

It's the same kind of bird figure, totem pole? What is that?

They've got the bird object displayed on the sign.

The birds Bobby saw are advertising a local craft.

Hello! Wow, look at this!

Ah, this is the one that we saw just over there.

This is the same design, right?

Incredible!

This is really intricate.

If you look at it up close, you can see these wings and the feathers

are all carved individually one by one, but they're all attached to this main piece here.

- What is this?
- It's a hawk. In the local dialect, we call it "otakapoppo."

For about three hundred years, these birds have been made as toys in this district of Yonezawa.

We make them from early fall to winter.
As you can see, I'm carving some right now.

- What are they?
- These are kezuribana, or whittled flowers.

- They're flowers?
- Yes, whittled flowers.

- Just made by whittling?
- That's right.

Some say that this technique for whittling wooden flowers has been in use for over 1,000 years.

Toda Kentaro is the seventh generation of his family to practice this craft.

Yonezawa has always been a very snowy area.
The snow means we can't get flowers in winter.

But in this season we need to offer them at shrines
and temples, and to our ancestors at home.

So people started making flowers from wood.

Now I just break it off,
and form this part into the flower pistil.

And suddenly, a beautiful flower.

Before we had this shop, we sold door to door.

In the past, the town held a flower market in January, where the Toda family also sold their flowers.

- What kind of flower is it?
- Traditionally, they're chrysanthemums.

They've always been very popular around here.
I grow them in my own garden.

Chrysanthemums are prized in Yamagata for another reason too.

These are real chrysanthemums.
I'll cook them with a little vinegar.

- Wait a minute! You eat them?
- That's right. These are for food, not decoration.

Really?

I blanch the flowers like this in boiling water.

In the old days, when the rice harvest failed, people in Yonezawa survived by eating chrysanthemums and wild plants.

They're even prettier than in the field.

- Never tried these?
- Never.

It's really crunchy.

A bit like spinach.

And then the scent of the flowers fills your mouth.
This is good.

I've been eating this since I was little.

- It's the taste of autumn?
- That's right.

Chrysanthemum season in Yonezawa.

Bobby is now riding north.

Woah.

Oh wow.

Woah.

We've got a great view of the city of Yamagata laid out below us.

And a rainbow over there.

As one season gives way to the next, you can never tell what the weather is going to do.

We're back to the Mogami River.

Oh wow.

Bobby has arrived at Sagae, on the middle stretch of the Mogami River.

Sagae has a special dish, only made in this season, that Bobby wants to try.

It looks like they've set out the welcome wagon for us.

Hello!

You must be the people giving the party.
Sorry to bring you out in this weather.

This is an association of farmers who grow "sato imo," or Japanese taro.

- This is all sato imo?
- Right.

A special kind that only grows here.
It's very tasty.

- Tasty, eh? What's it called?
- We call it kohime imo.

Kohime? Meaning little princess?

They're preparing the famous Yamagata stew called "imoni" that Bobby has come to try.

When Yamagata people return from a trip,
the first thing they want to eat is always imoni.

Imoni parties are a regular feature of autumn here, a great excuse to get together with neighbors and friends.

It's sato imo, beef, mushrooms, green onions, and more, in a sweet and savory soy-based broth.

Everything is so soft.
You can just break it all up with chopsticks.

It's hot!

And very tasty.

I've eaten sato imo before,
but this has a different texture.

It's not just soft and sticky,
it feels somewhere between chewy and fluffy.

Everyone says that.

Why is it so tasty?

I think it's the soil. The soil carried
by the Mogami River is especially fertile.

The Mogami River looks like just clear water.

But every time it floods,
it always leaves behind loads of really fertile soil.

There's another local food you'll like.
Let's make some imo mochi!

This is something only farmers eat.

- There's a daikon radish in it. What's that for?
- I'll use it to pound with.

- Rather than something wooden?
- Anything is OK.

- We have lots of daikon lying about, so I often use one.
- You pound it like this?

Is this OK? It's soft now.

"Imo mochi" is made with the imo from the crop that are too small to sell.

This is how they used to do it in the old days.
Never let anything go to waste.

Wow, look how sticky it's become.

The daikon makes a good tool.

The imo is served with a paste made of miso, sesame and sugar.

Be sure to enjoy the texture.

Nice. It goes well with the sweetness.

- Do you often gather like this?
- Whenever there's an imoni party.

It's such fun.

It's a big event for sato imo growers.

To give thanks for the crop
and for being able to eat such a fine vegetable.

Today begins at the foot of the mountains of Dewa Sanzan.

Since ancient times, these mountains have been an important pilgrimage site.

These enormous shrine gates right up ahead.

It symbolizes that we are on the road to the gods.

We're passing right under.

These are enormous.

We've got our first little flurries of snow.

Woah, feel that wind.

Woah.

That's getting close to hail.

It is cold.

We made our way well into the mountains.

Another 60 kilometers and the road is starting to climb.

I think there's a bunch of rocks out in the field over here.

Are those rocks?

Oh no, they're tree stumps.

Tree stumps burned black.

There was a fire here.

It's a whole hill covered in these burned stumps, these blackened stumps.

There's another big clump of those burned stumps up there.

You can see there's a person up there working or doing something.

Hello!

Sorry to interrupt you at work.
Can I ask you something?

- Sure.
- Thank you!

As I cycled past I saw all these blackened stumps
and wondered what they mean.

It's called yakihata - burning off the trees to plant crops.

After we cut down the cedar trees, we burn off what's left.
That gives us a field for growing turnips.

It's a special variety of turnip, unique to this area, that grows best with this type of cyclical farming.

After harvesting a crop of turnips, they'll plant the area again with cedar seedlings.

The field isn't plowed after burning - they just sow turnip seeds in the ashes.

The main reason is to control pests.

And also, the burning produces ash.
It makes the soil alkaline, which is ideal for growing turnips.

I think people started doing it
because there's hardly any flat land in this area.

Burning the hillsides allows us to farm them.

Igarashi Shoichi, born and raised in these mountains, is both farmer and forester.

Turnip season lasts until the snows come.
They grow sweeter and denser under snow.

Igarashi invites Bobby to his home.

Nice and warm!

It's a completely different world in here.

It makes you realize how cold it is out there.

It's so pretty!

- Still not quite done.
- Great color, though.

Turnips from Igarashi's field, pickled with salt and sweet vinegar.

This is delicious.

It's got a good radish kick in the flavor.

And I like the crunchy texture.

- I need three.
- Use as many as you like.

Bobby has decided to try a new way of cooking turnips.

I thought I'd roast them in foil with butter.

He slices the turnips, inserts pats of butter, then seasons with salt, pepper and rosemary.

I think they'll cook through quickly.

Nice smell.
And they look good too.

A drizzle of soy sauce and they're ready to eat.

Very soft!

Piping hot, right?

- This isn't just good, it's amazing.
- Right?

Roasted turnips from a burned field.

Haha. Twice roasted.

A taste you can only enjoy in Yamagata's mountains in autumn.

The land around us has opened up quite a bit.

Oh wow, look out in front.

We've come right up on the ocean.

Very different beach, very different ocean from what I'm used to.

This is cold and windy, gray and rocky.

There's a real sense of the power of nature to it.

As winter approaches in Yamagata, fierce, cold winds begin to blow in off the sea.

Raised in sunny Florida, Bobby has never experienced such weather.

Very chilled right now.

Nothing to stop the wind from cutting right through, straight off the ocean into the bones.

Oh, there's this huge, white building up ahead.

For a second I thought it was a boat, like a cruise ship.

Ah, it says it's a Jellyfish Dream Museum.

It's a Jellyfish Dream...

It's actually an aquarium, featuring jellyfish from all over the world.

Oh wow.

Yamagata's many species of saltwater fish are also on display here.

These are all the kinds of fish that you can find in the ocean that we've been riding along.

Look at that.

Huge seabream, huge grouper.

That's a cod.

That's enormous.

The aquarium has a restaurant that serves regional seafood.

- Wow!
- An impressive cod, right?

It's huge. As big as the one I saw back there.

Today I'll make winter cod soup, a local recipe.

The chef, Suda Takeshi, is well versed in traditional Yamagata cuisine.

This soup is also called "tarafuku"
which means a dish that makes you happy.

It's very filling, good to eat in winter.
And it contains liver, so it's very nutritious.

In America, we only eat this part, the flesh.

But the liver is delicious!

Is it important to eat the liver?

The liver adds depth.
It's fatty, so it stops the soup cooling.

That's what you need in a winter dish.
It warms both body and soul.

To allow the taste of the cod to come through fully,

it's cooked in a simple broth of kombu dashi with a hint of miso.

At the table, a final topping of iwanori seaweed.

This was originally a dish made by fishermen.

Wow.

The broth is basically just kombu and cod.
But the result is amazingly satisfying.

The sea gives us everything we need.

Bobby's first taste of the riches from Yamagata's fertile seas.

From its mouth on the coast, Bobby will now follow the Mogami River upstream.

It's gotten so big!

You can't really tell it from the ocean.

We cross over the river again.

Bobby has left the Mogami to explore one of its tributaries.

You get down low, right up on it.

Absolutely gorgeous this time of year.

This silver-white of the susuki.

The yellows and reds of the trees.

Bobby will meet a man who loved this river so much he moved across Japan to live here.

Hello there!

I'm Bobby. Pleased to meet you.

Matsunami Mitsuo originally lived near Tokyo.

He studied fisheries science at university, and now works as a coordinator of fishing events in Yamagata.

Let's see what we can find.
They'll be near that current over there.

- There! Did you see it?
- It's running away.

- I can just see a white tail.
- Yes, that's it.

Right up through here. Right up close to the bank.

They've found a salmon.

The name of this river, the Sakegawa, means "Salmon River."

Every year at this time, these fish swim up here to spawn.

Ah, here it comes, here it comes.
It's so close.

This is the first time I've seen this.
Salmon in the wild, in nature.

Old records show salmon spawned here in ancient times.

Remains from the prehistoric Jomon period
reveal people were eating salmon then.

60km from the sea, this is a primeval landscape.

These fish swim across an ocean
to come back to their river. It's amazing.

Each November, special traps called "urai" are used to catch the salmon.

To help increase the number of salmon,

they take the eggs, hatch them and grow the fry until they are ready to be released.

Is this the place?

Why do so many salmon come to this particular river?

Matsunami has brought Bobby to this hilltop to explain.

Seeing this view made me decide to move here.
It was exactly this time of year, too.

The trees are turning red now. These are just low
mountains, but we get brilliant autumn foliage.

These forests are broadleaf trees, mainly beech.

Such forests store water,
and so it accumulates more nutrients.

Streams carry these nutrients into the river,
which attracts salmon here to spawn.

The salmon repay the forest by helping its growth.

There's a saying: "salmon make forests."

At sea, salmon store nutrients in their bodies.
They return to the river, spawn, then die.

River insects eat the dead salmon,
and small fish eat the insects.

Animals like bears eat the fish,
and so the nutrients return to the forest.

It's a cycle. Forests feed nutrients to the river,
making it a good place for young fish to grow.

That brings salmon to spawn here, and when they die,
their bodies feed nutrients to the forest.

Rivers, forests, salmon - the cycle of nature.

Just an incredible landscape.

We've still got these vibrant green rice paddies, the fall colors in the mountains.

Blue sky, white clouds.

A perfect scenery.

The next day, Matsunami takes Bobby to taste the local way of cooking salmon.

Keen chefs, the Maruyamas work to promote the cuisine of this area.

- Now that's a fine salmon.
- Just caught this morning.

You can eat every part of a salmon.

- Every part?
- Yes. Nothing gets thrown away.

You'll be used to seeing salmon fillets.

First, they'll grill and glaze it with miso.

Steam is already coming off the flesh.

Is there any difference between fish
caught in the river and fish caught at sea?

Absolutely. Sea-caught salmon are very fatty,
and great as sashimi, so they fetch a high price.

Salmon from the river are like marathon runners,
with hardly any fat.

They don't eat or drink in the 60km swim upstream.

Today we call this a low-fat, high-protein food.

The salmon is glazed with a mixture of miso, sugar and sake.

It's got well-sauced now and crisping up really, really nicely.

And the miso is so full of umami flavor.

This one's for you!

- How do you like the miso?
- Amazing!

This fish was born here, swam tens of
thousands of kilometers to Alaska and back.

It grew up, then returned to this river.
I always feel a sense of gratitude as I eat.

The rest of the fish is boiled in a broth with added miso.

You really do use everything.

It's all in there, everything from tail to eyeballs.

That's amazing.

Locally called "zappa jiru," this salmon soup is now ready.

This broth is wonderful.

Salmon used to be highly prized.
If you caught one, you'd invite all your relatives.

That was the start of our local salmon cuisine.

So catching a salmon was a cause for celebration.

That's right. A precious occasion.

It's still an important part of local culture here.
I want to make sure my generation keeps it going.

We're finally on the last leg of the trip.

Bobby is headed for a spot that will give him a panoramic view of the Mogami River and the surrounding mountains.

A misty grey at the end of autumn.

Look at the visibility up ahead.

It's like a wall of fog.

Like riding into a cloud.

This is it.

This is our spot.

Here we are.

It's like we're standing in the clouds.

It's so quiet.

Far below, the Mogami River is shrouded in mist.

That was a great trip.

I've never traveled in these conditions before. And I wanted to enjoy the food.

I wanted to eat my way through Yamagata and I got to.

But I think it was the perfect season to see how the people here have developed this culture of taking whatever they can get.

Whether it's flowers or parts of the fish that I would throw away or anything that they can that's edible.

Because that's what they had to do to survive winter here, financially and just in terms of sustenance.

The flexibility and the ingenuity that it takes to do that.

And that's what it takes to live in an environment where the changing of the seasons is so drastic and the winter is so stark.

Bobby's trip just caught the last fading days of autumn.

Soon, Yamagata will be plunged into the icy cold of winter.