Potatoes in Japan

At Maruetsu, the sweet potato cart
awaits my arrival

I love the way Japanese supermarkets have different kinds of potatoes baking on hot stones outside. Also van's crying out "Ya-ki-mo---" going around the neighbourhood selling hot baked sweet potatoes.

If you're lucky the prices of
the sweet potatoes are halved
"close to midnight"

sweet potatoes on the cart

sweet potatoes safely in the basket

My local supermarket does the purple sweet potato "satsumaimo" and the kagoshima "annouimo" on it's baking cart. Potatoes are baking from 5pm to midnight.


Satsumaimo (薩摩芋)
The classic, took 4 potatoes chopped up and in 4-lock tupperware to Tohoku when doing volunteer work. Lasted me all the way through a weekend of hard labour. Packed with good carbs.

Annoimo (安納芋)

I'd been dodging this one on the bake stand going for sweet potatoes because I thought it was just a baked potato. What a treat I was missing! These things really hold their heat and you can scold your mouth when you bite into them. The outer skin is tough and makes it like a rice ball. The inside is super sweet like a dessert. My colleague says I should try them semi-frozen cos they're like ice-cream. 安納芋 doesn't show up in a dictionary because they are rare and only native to Kagoshima. I'll keep eating them on training days.

Heikiri Hoshiimo (平切りほしいも)

They sell these dried sweet potatoes in the "sweets" section of the supermarket. I had been looking for them in the "tsukemono" section until I noticed some for half price in a bargain bin. I asked the bint at the checkout and she told me where to get them in future. Since then I keep them around for post workout extra carbs. Each pack is the same price as a whole sweet potato at 180円 and packs in 293kcal! 4.5g of たんぱく質 (protein), 0.6g of "脂質" (fat), 64.5g of "糖質" or saccharine, but it doesn't say how much "炭水化物" (carbs)!! Are they confusing saccharine with carbs? Or am I confusing saccharine with carbs?

White Potato

I don't eat these but don't have a grudge on them or anything.
Would probably eat them if I lived in the UK and couldn't get sweet potatoes like here in Japan.
In fact I'd be more inclined to eat something with only one ingredient like a white potato than something containing "natural preservatives", "natural colouring", or "natural stabilisers".