Yo, yo, wasabi.

No, I’m not trying to be cool or coy, that is the actual name of one of the magazines in-state to research this celebration called Oregon Bounty. WaSaBi

First off, let me introduce myself: Mr. Sean Egusa, Asia Tourism Manager for Travel Oregon. I promote inbound tourism to the state to the Asian markets, first and foremost Japan. So we have some Japanese in town interested in this culinary tourism product that has been snowballing in conjunction with the Oregon Bounty celebration this month (and next). This project involves a lot of good food, fraternizing with some of our best chefs, tasting some of the world’s best Pinot Noir and in general showcasing the best of Oregon… Say no more…

Our guests are here courtesy of our friends and partners at Northwest Airlines. The direct flight from Tokyo is a boon to the tourism industry in Oregon and from Singapore to Shanghai to Tokyo, they are jonesing to get the international crowd hip and in the know on the Oregon experience. Are we ready???

Back to reality.

Day 1 is meant to be a bit casual given our guests are in the wrong time zone and in the wrong day. After a quick check in to their hotel, it’s off to an early lunch at Caprial‘s. Hello… Yum! And what the heck is this sturgeon thing? No way is that a freshwater fish and listening to me I can tell that they think Oregonians have very BIG stories about the one that got away (more revealed on Day 2′s entry). Adrian you are a superstar and provided our guests with the best kind of welcome to Oregon experience I could have hoped for.

The next few hours involved many stops at antique shops in the Sellwood area and also a quick stop at Bob’s Red Mill. It was good to get down to one of the landmarks of the organic revolution coming out of Oregon.

Dinner at Higgins was sublime and one of our guests proclaimed it one of her new favorite restaurants, and if you knew the list of her favorite restaurants, I think even Greg would be impressed (yes, I’m referring to Greg Higgins).

But, we have only just begun…