This year, the preliminaries are part of a larger edamame festival showcasing a popular style of serving soybeans from Niigata Prefecture.

While some people delight in gastronomic pursuits such as speed-eating, others take their time finishing the largest possible portion of a dish to perfection. No matter which of those camps you fall into, the upcoming Niigata Edamame-Mori Festival in Tokyo will have something for everyone–as long as you’re a fan of the immature soybeans, of course.

The event will be held on Sunday, July 14 in the 4th-floor Tokyo Culture Culture event space and restaurant of the Cocoti Shibuya shopping mall. Niigata Prefecture, on the coast of the Sea of Japan, is one of Japan’s top edamame-producing areas, cultivating over 40 different types. The festival will showcase a particular style of serving edamame popular in Niigata called “edamame-mori,” in which a heaping serving of freshly boiled legumes are served in a bamboo colander or bowl for continuous munching.

▼ Picture this, but with edamame piled sky-high!

Festival attendees will be able to eat and compare different varieties of edamame to their hearts’ content along with sampling 10 kinds of sake and 15 local seasonal foods from Niigata (included in the ticket price).

A special highlight of the festival will be the chance to see the preliminary rounds of the 7th World Edamame Speed-Eating Championships, held for the first time in 2016. Two preliminary sessions, with a maximum of 80 participants each, will be held from 12-2:30 p.m. and 4-6:30 p.m., with doors opening 30 minutes prior to each session. Participants will challenge themselves to see how many grams of edamame they can consume within 100 seconds. The top 14 highest-scoring eaters (seven from each session) will be invited to the Championship finals on July 21 in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture.

▼ You’re gonna need a whole lotta edamame, Shibuya.

If this all sounds like a great way to spend your Sunday, tickets for general admission cost 2,500 yen (US$15.54) per person and tickets for speed-eating challengers cost 2,000 yen. Edamame lovers who can’t make it to Tokyo but will be in Kyoto can perhaps enjoy sampling green soybeans in a different way instead.

Event information
Niigata Edamame-Mori Festival / 新潟えだまめ盛フェス
Address: Tokyo-to, Shibuya-ku, Shibuya 1-23-16, Cocoti Shibuya, 4th floor
東京都渋谷区渋谷1-23-16 渋谷 ココチ4階
Date: July 14
Website

Source: Shibuya Keizai Shimbun
Top image: Tokyo Culture Culture
Insert images: Pakutaso (1, 2) 
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