7.8 years spent developing it into a community activity

It’s already been eight years since we started this activity. As the activity has continued for a long time, something surprising has happened. That is, the younger generation has become interested in the local traditional food and has started to come to enjoy it. Sometimes young people around high school age come and interview the women working in the market and ask us questions about the food. They also seem to want to try the old food. Seeing that, I feel that young people also have a need to have a good time in a place like ours.

The community activity has spread to many people, and we have been invited by people from other villages, governments, NGOs, etc. They ask us to give lectures on how we created the market and how we have promoted this activity. We tell them that this is an activity based on the potential of the region, and explain that it is important to make use of not only food but also the unique resources and characteristics of the region.

Every village has a lot of potential, including things that local people do not realize. For example, if there are people in the village who make a lot of handicrafts, you can create a traditional market based on handicrafts. It is also possible to create a market using other products such as seafood. We are telling them that it is possible to create a market that is tailored to the characteristics of the region, not just limited to food like ours.