Breakfast: New Year's Special Edition:A local restaurant in Ise where people line up from 4am: Ibusuki's "Golden Bonito Flakes"

A New Year's special edition of TV Asahi's gourmet variety show "Asameshi Made" will be broadcast from 11:15 pm to 12:15 am on January 1st, except in some areas. Titled "Midnight Workers Supporting Japan's New Year Special," the episode will focus on chefs who support the traditional culture of Ise City, Mie Prefecture, as well as introduce the "golden bonito flakes" of Ibusuki City, Kagoshima Prefecture.

About a five-minute walk from the entrance to the Inner Shrine of Ise Grand Shrine, there is a local cuisine restaurant that has lines starting as early as 4am. This famous restaurant was founded in the Edo period and is usually popular for its Mie Prefecture local dish "Tekone Sushi," but on the morning of the first of each month, they offer a monthly "secret breakfast" incorporating seasonal ingredients to suit the worshippers who make their "Tsuitachi Mairi" (first day of the month visit).

The program interviewed the head chef, who works in the kitchen from 2 a.m. in preparation for the restaurant's early morning opening. "As a chef from Ise, I want to pass on the culture of hospitality to the next generation," he said, as he painstakingly prepares a breakfast that's worth lining up to try.

In Ibusuki city, we cover the making of dried bonito flakes, which are essential for New Year's cuisine. Ibusuki city is one of the three major dried bonito production areas in Japan, and there are more than 15 dried bonito manufacturing factories in the city. The "golden dried bonito flakes" made by the dried bonito manufacturing company we followed this time are a masterpiece that won the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Award. We will get closer to the secret of their deliciousness.

The program closely follows the process from bidding for the bonito to the completion of the honkarebushi, and everyone in the studio was amazed at the number of steps and the skilled craftsmen who worked tirelessly, saying things like, "It must be so time-consuming," and "It's so hard!" Guest Shida Mirai, who watched the video, said, "Katsuobushi is an essential ingredient in cooking. It made me want to appreciate it more and enjoy it more from now on."

In keeping with the New Year, MC Kazuya Kojima and Eiji Wentz appeared in red and white haori hakama. Guest comedian Hiroyuki Amano from the comedy duo "Kyaeen" also appeared.