#CreativeAward2026 #EntertainmentOriginalWorkCategory The Road to Natto Champion Chapter 3 | How To Make Natto-Champion | TV Champion Participation Ticket

When I nervously opened the email that arrived from the TV production company, after the opening greeting,

the body of the email, which stated that we were to meet at JR Kameido Station at 10:00 AM on Saturday, August 12, 2000, had a schedule attached for two days of filming.

“Huh? They’re asking me to participate out of the blue without even checking my availability?
Hmm? Isn't the meeting place at the TV Tokyo headquarters in Shiba Park? Why Kameido? ...Could this be a fake show?”

Suspicious of this one-sided and strange notification, I decided to ask Mr. Miida about it via email.

“Good evening. I received an invitation to participate in the show today, did you get one too? Also, the meeting place is Kameido Station, doesn't that seem suspicious?”

I received a reply from Mr. Miida immediately.

“Good evening. I got one today too. You did it! So you can participate too, Ganmo-san! The location for the first showdown is where we meet for the shoot! It seems meeting at the TV station is only for the studio recording later.”

“I see, so that's how it is.”

It seemed the notification was real, so I felt relieved.

Looking closely at the schedule, the first round was the “National Natto Tasting Competition”. As the top chairman of the Natto Development Committee, which operates a website and has 100 committee members nationwide, being eliminated in this first round would be a matter of pride. I had to pass the first round no matter what.

However, although I had secured my TV Champion participation ticket, there were only two months left until the actual event.

The battle began the day I got the participation ticket.First, I re-confirmed the survey I had answered previously. I re-examined about 100 brands of natto.

I had already covered almost all products from major natto manufacturers, but local natto was an almost entirely unknown world.

I searched the websites of the natto manufacturers on my list, bought every natto I could order online, and my refrigerator was almost completely filled with natto.

On weekdays, I would stop by supermarkets and convenience stores in between sales calls to trading companies and construction firms in Iwate, Aomori, and Akita to buy up natto, and ate natto all over my company car. The car was filled with the smell of natto.
Then, on the weekends, I updated my natto collection on the Natto Development Committee website.

The second round was the “Healthy Natto Cooking Competition”.

I had to actually make the creative menu I had submitted in the preliminary survey. The creative menu consisted of natto steamed buns, natto crab omelet rice, and Chinese-style natto salad.

The kitchen suddenly became a battlefield.With a recipe I found online in one hand, I cooked by myself with clumsy hands, repeating trial and error while having my family of four taste-test the results.

The most difficult one was the steamed bun. While cooking other dishes in parallel, it took me three hours to make the steamed buns from scratch using yeast by myself.

“No good. If I don't finish within two hours, I'll be disqualified immediately.”

So, I searched online for a way to make steamed buns faster.

“If I wait for the yeast to ferment, I won't make it in time. In that case, I have no choice but to use baking powder to make them puff up all at once, and use both a microwave and a steamer to save time!”
I tried to save time by heating the plastic-wrapped meat buns in the microwave and then steaming them in a bamboo steamer. I finished all the dishes in 1 hour and 50 minutes, but the skins of the steamed buns were slightly harder than the ones made with yeast.

“You did it! You finished just in time.”
“The steamed buns are a bit hard, but they taste good.”

I was encouraged by my family's opinion.

“I can fight with this”

I felt a sense of confidence.

My initial ultimate goal was to complete a natto dish while having fun in the second round.
I knew I couldn't compete with Mr. Miida from the Natto Society in terms of knowledge and passion, so I had no intention of winning, or even reaching the final round.

Then, when I posted an announcement on the Natto Development Committee bulletin board about my participation in the TV Champion "National Natto King Championship" and asked for committee members to come and cheer me on that day, several members living in the Tokyo area decided to come.

Since the location shoot was during the Obon holiday period, I didn't tell my boss anything. I didn't have the courage to say I was going to Tokyo to "participate in TV Champion."
Moreover, I knew I would be mocked if I became a loser who was eliminated in the first round, so I couldn't say it even more.

I sent the ingredients to be used in the second round to the production company in advance via refrigerated delivery.
And on the morning of the day, I put on my battle outfit: a red shirt, a black vest, easy-to-run-in chinos, and sneakers.
I took the first Shinkansen from Morioka Station, turned my back on Mt. Iwate, and headed to the battlefield of the vast ocean called "Tokyo."

On the Shinkansen, Miyuki Nakajima's song "Fight" kept running through my head, and my adrenaline wouldn't stop.
Pushed by that singing voice that stirs up fighting spirit, I headed to the battlefield of the vast ocean called "Tokyo." My heart was pounding, and a quiet battle had begun.

Chapter 2 Chapter 4

Click here for Chapter 1

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