The news of Chinese travelers coming to Japan for Chinese New Year is always covered in the Japanese media, but even more so this year because the number of tourists is expected to be the highest in history; and for many shops and restaurants, the influx of visitors can really help their business!

We are a cooking studio, not a store or a restaurant, but fortunately enough, we too had visitors from Hong Kong today. It was a large group of ten people! They came to our morning bento class and cooked typical Japanese foods such as sushi, tempura and miso soup. Like many other travelers from Hong Kong, they have been to Japan several times and knew of basic Japanese foods, so our ten friends requested to learn something new that is not typically on our menu . One of the items we chose to teach was Ichiyaboshi – one night dry fish（一夜干し) that we prepared the night before the class and had them to grill during class.

Often travelers know more than locals about the country they are visiting, and this is also the case for Hong Kong customers. They have been to major cities in Japan, so they have been visiting more rural places in recent years (according to them, they travel to Japan almost every year. I wish I could do the same to Hong Kong…) Last time they traveled to Ureshino Onsen, and this time they are staying at Ogoto Onsen in Shiga. They are the first tourists who have gone to Ogoto Onsen among all of the customers we have had in the last eleven months. It was great to learn that visitors are interested in these areas, too.

After cooking, they went up to the dining room and enjoyed lunch. Though there were so much food and three out of the ten guests were children, they finished eating and enjoyed it very much. Thank you for coming, we hope you had fun here!