People race Miatas, drift them, and generally just drive around in them, but do you roast sweet potatoes on the trunk of them? This guy does.

Roasted sweet potatoes are a common street food found all around Japan notoriously during the summer for some odd reason, but that’s a different story. Scrolling around on Twitter, I came across this sweet NC Miata in Japan with something strange on its trunk. Upon further investigation, it looks like this genius of an entrepreneur is literally roasting, selling, and marketing his Roasted Sweet Potato business from the trunk of his NC Mazda Miata. Don’t believe me? Check out this on-site video from a reporter who went to investigate this strange food truck…er…car for herself.



According to Hamarepo.com, this Mazda Miata can be found in Yokohama city, roughly 50 miles south-west of Tokyo. As the articles I found are in Japanese and I have to do with direct to English translation, the exact story is a tad difficult to surmise but it looks like this Miata owner is an ardent Yokohama citizen whose aim is to bring a bit of economic stimulus to his beloved Yokohama by selling his delicious sweet potatoes.

He says that,

“When people gather, they will flow to delicious shops in Yokohama, and if you go to the club in Yokohama Motomachi in the evening It is good, is not it? “I’d like you to enjoy the city of Yokohama, I am entrusting the feeling of raising it to Rodo potatoes”. As warm sweet potatoes are warm and warm.”

According to the owner, it took 500,000 yen or about $4,000 to add the necessary modifications to his Miata including a swinging tow hitch to hold all his supplies, not to mention that iron stove with a coal burning fire to cook the sweet potatoes on his trunk.

Since he’s just placing the potatoes on a fire, supposedly this is not considered cooking in Japan, so no further permitting is required.

The sweet potatoes are reportedly very delicious, some crediting the fact that he uses locally sourced sweet potatoes. And like all things Japan, this owner is committed to perfecting his art.

“I’m studying how to bake every day to make delicious sweet potatoes.”

The recipe itself is a secret and was perfected through trial and error. Priced at 300 yen (About $2.80) they are an affordable treat.

If you’d like to follow this guy’s amazing Roasted Sweet Potato journey from the trunk of his Miata, he posts regularly on Twitter as @ElLoco 2018.

So, if you happen to be near Yokohama in the near future, look this Miata owner up on Twitter and have a couple hundred Yen to spend on this sweet treat from the back of a roadster.