Photo= Participants arrange tea-flavored sweet dumplings for Guinness World Records' recognition (Ujigami Shrine, Uji, Uji City, Kyoto Prefecture)

The "Let's connect World Heritage sites with dumplings" project aiming to set a Guinness world record was held on March 6 around Kyoto Prefectural Uji Park, in Uji, Uji City, Kyoto Prefecture, in which local people and tourists tried to connect Byodo-in Temple and Ujigami Shrine with "Cha-dango," or tea-flavored sweet dumplings, a famous confection of Uji. Although they could not connect the two World Heritage sites, the challenge was recognized by Guinness World Records for connecting a distance of 341.57 meters, or more than halfway, with 16,291 dumplings.

On that day, participants arranged the roughly two-centimeters in diameter, tea-flavored sweet dumplings one after another on an approximately 80-centimeter high table, struggling with the dumpling sticking to their hands. As the review discovered a gap between dumplings on the Asagiri-bashi Bridge over the Uji River, only the distance from Byodo-in Temple to that point was certified for the record. It is possible the dumplings had shrunk due to the elapsed time after their arrangement.

Tamayo Tarutani, the planning committee's chairperson, said, "I feel disappointed, but merchants, citizens, the government, and everyone in the city were united. I hope this will be a new starting point for our community development." According to the planning committee which consists of commercial and industrial businesses, approximately 35,000 dumplings from seven companies were prepared and approximately 2,000 people participated.