On an information site which provides advice for traveling in Japan for foreign tourists, food-related words accounted for more than half of the top 20 popular keywords in 2013. Foreigners are highly interested in "Washoku," or Japanese cuisine, which has been registered as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, and food is likely to be the key to attracting foreign tourists even in Kyoto, the source of Japanese cuisine.

"Deep Japan," run by the sightseeing information service business "Zeroin," located in Tokyo, is an English website where foreign residents of Japan contribute tourist information. The top keywords were ranked based on the browsing records of approximately 1,000 advice articles uploaded last year.

The most popular keyword was "Soba," or buckwheat noodles, followed by "Sushi" in second place and "Ramen," or Chinese noodles, in third. Japanese seasonings, such as miso, soy sauce, and others, were also of high interest, confirming that Japanese cuisine is a key ingredient of tourism. Although "Kimono," "Hot Springs" and "Anime and Manga," representative of Cool Japan, also entered the ranking, food-related words accounted for 12 out of the top 20.

Popular advice articles related to the top keywords were "Tips on how to slurp buckwheat noodles," "How to successfully dip hand-shaped sushi into soy sauce," and "Miso, pork bones or soy sauce: soups for Chinese noodles explained."

Yoshihide Hagimoto, the editorial director of Deep Japan analyzed the results, saying, "While advice about the formal way to eat Japanese cuisine and manners were required, advice about informal Japanese cuisine, such as conveyor belt sushi bars and stand-up-dining for buckwheat noodles also gathered support. I suppose the results reflect the wide-range, in terms of countries and regions, as well as budget, of visitors to Japan."