FUKUOKA -- "Please help us." Vendors recently took to social media to ask people to purchase about 3,000 cups of pudding originally prepared for sale at a hot air balloon festival in the west Japan city of Saga that was canceled midway due to torrential rain in the area. The desserts sold out in about seven hours during an impromptu sale in front of a local station.

The Saga International Balloon Fiesta, one of the largest hot air balloon festivals in Asia, kicked off on Oct. 31 on the banks of the Kase River in the city, but all related events were canceled from Nov. 1 due to heavy rain. In recent years, Saga Prefecture has promoted itself as "Purinken Saga," meaning "Saga the pudding prefecture," with a committee consisting of local confectioners working to revitalize the area through pudding. Seven vendors in the prefecture were scheduled to sell the desserts at the venue to liven up the festival.

But due to torrential rain, events including sales by vendors were called off from Nov. 1 until the final day of the festival on Nov. 4, with the exception of some competitive events. The riverbed was expected to flood, and refrigeration units for the pudding were removed. Since they are perishable items, there was a risk of having to throw all the cups of pudding away.

"We have to get through this somehow," Aiko Ohtomi, a 45-year-old vendor selling pudding in the prefectural town of Miyaki, thought in response to the announcement of the sudden cancelation of the festival. After negotiating with commercial facilities in the prefecture, she managed to organize sales of the leftover desserts in front of JR Saga Station.

A long line formed as soon as sales began at 8:30 a.m. on Nov. 1, and the cups of pudding sold out one after another. Some customers even visited from outside the prefecture after seeing the social media post calling for help, and encouraged the vendors with comments such as, "Keep up the good work!" People including local professional athletes from the Sagan Tosu soccer team in the top J1 League and the Saga Ballooners basketball team in the first division of the Japanese B.League showed up. Although the vendors had planned to continue sales from the second day onwards, all items had sold out by 3:30 p.m. on the first day.

Ohtomi said, "I felt the warm support from everyone wanting to help." Several areas across Japan were hit by torrential downpours during this year's last three-day holiday, causing many events to be canceled. She expressed hope that "support would also reach other vendors affected by heavy rain."

(Japanese original by Hibiki Yamaguchi, Kyushu News Department)