Photo/Illutration Tourists from Hong Kong enjoy pieces of sushi that chef Kazuo Iida makes. The photo was taken in Kutchan, Hokkaido, on Feb. 2. (Kentaro Uechi)

Top sushi chefs are cooking right in their patrons’ own accommodations for around 30,000 yen ($195) per person, and the service has become popular in one of Japan’s most popular tourist sites in Hokkaido.

On the night of Feb. 2, during the Chinese New Year period, Kazuya Iida, a 44-year-old sushi chef with 25 years of experience, was making sushi at a condominium in Kutchan town in Niseko. 

The course Iida served that day included 10 pieces of sushi, “chawanmushi” (steamed egg hotchpotch), grilled kinki fish and four other dishes. The extravagant meal was priced at 28,800 yen per adult.

The chef brought the ingredients, cooking utensils and dishes from his restaurant and cooked in the condominium kitchen. He also took any waste and garbage produced while he cooked away with him.

A 44-year-old visitor from Hong Kong, who said this was his third visit to Niseko, brought a piece of fatty tuna sushi to his mouth.

“It's delicious!” he said while chasing it down with Dassai sake.

The group of 10 adults and six children were visiting from Hong Kong for a seven-day trip.

“The yen is weak, so the prices are reasonable. We can enjoy the food and service without worrying too much about prices,” Vincent said with satisfaction.

This is the 25th time that Iida has cooked for tourists in their accommodations this winter, and over the hundredth time since he started doing so six years ago.

Iida and the tourist group from Hong Kong were brought together by Sushi Japan, a company run by a venture company Japan Pacific Management (JPM), based in Osaka.

In the Niseko area, which is flooded with visitors in the winter, it can be difficult for large groups or people with children to enter restaurants.

However, if someone wants to open a new restaurant, expected profits are limited to about four winter months, and there are few properties available for the business or for workers to reside in.

Meanwhile, restaurants in the Shiribeshi region outside the Niseko area, such as Shakotan and Iwanai, are crowded with tourists looking for sea urchin rice bowls during the summer tourist season, but are quiet in the off-season.

Iida also runs a restaurant inn called “Nagomi no Yado Iida” in Shakotan. He said that in the winter he was “eating away at his summer savings,” before he started the visit-and-cook-sushi service.

Then, JPM saw a business opportunity in connecting wealthy people who want to enjoy a relaxing meal with restaurants that want to stabilize their sales throughout the year.

JPM worked to make the service appear at the top of online search results on Google and other sites, and also asked Japanese travel agencies located overseas to recommend it to tourists who planned to visit Japan.

From the start of the business in 2018 through last winter, about 1,000 groups from 15 countries and regions, including Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, had used the service.

Restaurants that offer the cooking services receive 20-30 percent of the payments made by customers, excluding the cost of ingredients.

“When I began this service, I was surprised when some customers started eating pizza when I was about to serve sushi,” Iida said. “It’s not our own kitchen, so the way things work is different every time. We can’t make mistakes like forgetting things, so in a way, it made me a better chef.”

While catering to tourists who prefer fatty ingredients such as fatty tuna and salmon, he proudly said, “We serve food that Japanese people will also be satisfied with.”

JPM President Tatsumi Tomita, 32, is enthusiastic, saying, “We want to continue to help solve local issues.”

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