​料理を通じて普通の日常生活を体験してもらいたい

In November 2017, Nihon Keizai Newspaper was kind enough to write a very complimentary article, entitled " Is Super Hospitality the Key? "

​Here is the translation for the article.
Special thanks to Jeff and Mandy Rubin who helped a lot for this translation.

 Is “Super Hospitality” the Key?

In early November, we found big smiles in Mayuko’s Little Kitchen in Tokyo. Mayuko’s Little Kitchen is a Japanese cooking class for visitors to Japan from abroad, where guests enjoy cooking Japanese food in Mayuko’s private kitchen.

​The main dishes on the day we came were sushi roll and ginger pork. Guests, tasting miso soup that they made for the first time from the soup stock (dashi) they prepared themselves, were heard to proclaim “we made it ourselves and it was delicious.” April Heneger, who came with three generations of family, had been impressed by Japanese hospitality she experienced during the class.

Reservations for Mayuko’s Little Kitchen have been rolling in because approximately 500 guests have given them the highest rating of five stars on the preeminent travel site TripAdvisor. Mayuko Okada, the owner of Mayuko’s Little Kitchen explains “料理を通じて普通の日常生活を体験してもらいたい” (We want our guests to experience authentic Japanese daily life through cooking).

Foreign visitors to Japan are on the rise and the amounts they are spending in Japan are showing good growth. But 80% of the visitors are from Asia and most of their consumption is for shopping, lodging, and dining. The entertainment and service sectors account for just 3%.

Consumption at “experience-oriented” establishments like Mayuko’s Little Kitchen is still rare. So it is necessary for both the Japanese government and the private sector to devise more of such services.