Is there anything better when the temperature dips than a communal nabe/nabemono (hotpot) dish that you can share with family and friends? Sukiyaki, shabu shabu, chankonabe, oden ...
in Japan, the list of comforting, wholesome dishes goes on and on and varies from region to region. For instance, the custom of cooking the local-style nabe, imon i, by a river is so important to residents of Yamagata Prefecture that children take school field trips to learn how to prepare the dish by themselves. ▼ Imoni being prepared by junior high school students If you’re someone who can’t wait for hotpot season to arrive, luckily, condiment company Mizkan has got your back this year.
The company has done some investigating to determine that the time at which people start to want to eat nabe is when the temperature stays below 15 degrees Celsius for three days in a row. Consequently, Mizkan has predicted the best time for all different kinds of nabe around the country in its newly created 2024 National Nabe Opening Forecast map (likely as a parody of the annual cherry blossom or fall foliage forecasts seen in Japan), whose production was supervised by professional weathercaster Eriko Maruta. The map breaks Japan into 10 common regions to predict when families will start breaking out the hotpots this year based on local weather patterns.
▼ 2024 National Nabe Opening Forecast map Let’s take a closer look at the nabe opening forecast for each of the 10 regions (traveling north to south).