Junsai is a water plant, a relative of the water lily, growing in freshwater ponds. It used to be called nunawa. Kakusuke pond in Mitane was where it grew wild, and as the surroundings changed the plant declined.

What followed was deliberate. People here did not want to lose a food that belonged to the place, so ponds were opened and prepared for it, and the harvest continues. It is still picked one shoot at a time by hand, from a flat-bottomed boat, and through the summer the sight of women out on the water is part of what the season looks like here. If a leaf grows too large its value drops, so the work is a race.

The hotpot is built on stock from Hinai jidori chicken, with burdock, seri, leek, mushrooms, tofu, and shirataki in it, plus meatballs in the version the town serves.

The junsai goes in differently from everything else. Each person adds only their own portion, and takes it out the moment the color turns green. What arrives on the tongue is a coating of clear jelly that slides and then gives way, and almost no flavor at all. Akita calls this a summer hotpot, which sounds like a contradiction until you have had the one ingredient that has to be eaten within seconds.