Roten

Last night I went to a summer festival at a shrine. There were many roten and yatai, which are small mobile shops.

Yatai generally means a small mobile shop, a definition that includes roten. However, yatai and roten offer different things. Yatai offers different kinds of food, we think of shops selling food. Roten, on the other hand, offer toys, willow baskets, goldfish scooping or ring toss. The picture shown is of a shooting game roten.

Rumor has it that yatai and roten are affiliated with gangs. The people selling things at yatai have a certain hierarchy: the higher-ranked people cook difficult dishes such as “okonomiyaki” and “yakisoba”. The lower-ranked people cook simpler food like baked corns. (Which, as you may have guessed, only need to be baked.) The highest-ranked people normally don't sell anything, but instead patrol the area and prevent fights. Nobody would start fighting knowing the scary people are walking around.

Again, these observations are only rumors.

Thank you.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yatai
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okonomiyaki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakisoba
http://www.kikkoman.co.jp/homecook/search/recipe.php?numb=00001876 = baked corns
Koir, thanks a lot.