First “paying” visitors

Well the first “paying” visitors to Kiora Cottage have now been and gone. They turned out to be a little different to what I had been originally planned and prepared for, but it all worked out in the end. Tom told me that there would be 2 men and 2 women. The youngest would be 61 and the oldest 75 years old…. So I figured a nice healthy breakfast of homemade bread and muffins might not go down so well and bought some things that would go better with a traditional rice breakfast and some things to eat and drink with them in the evening. Then at about 5pm I got a phone call from an embarrassed Tom saying that he had made a little mistake and that they were a little younger than he had first said – in fact the 61 and 75 referred not to their ages, but to the year that they were born! So with that in mind they had to shuffle the male and female pairs and we ended up with 4 females who really enjoyed a breakfast of homemade bread (with jam of course), pumpkin muffins, homemade muesli (thanks for the recipe so many years ago Dawn!) and fresh fruit and yoghurt.

They were from Korea and it brought back many memories of what it was like when I first came here to Japan and couldn’t speak any Japanese. One of the women spoke a tiny bit of English, but apart from that we were limited to gestures etc. They didn’t arrive until about 8pm, so after they “freshened up” in the cottage then came to our house to talk for a bit it was bed time. Up for breakfast at 7am and then away by 7:45am. A very short visit, but it was a nice start. They all seemed to really enjoy staying in the cottage and all said they wanted to build one like it back in Korea (that was translated by the interpreter!). Now we just need to get all our permits etc. sorted out so we can start advertising properly and then we need to train Emily and Masaki to not put on their “we’re so shy we can’t speak” act! Both sat on the floor in the hallway to eat their breakfast……so much for mingling with the family!