Top 10 Cooking Classes in Japan

Japanese knives are heralded by chefs and home cooks worldwide as among the strongest and sharpest around. The KAI corporation is a world-leading knife manufacturer – so you’d expect their onsite cooking course to be an equally premium experience. 

A rotating menu of courses is available at their head office in Tokyo’s ‘electric town’ – Akihabara. This course comes highly recommended by the Michelin Guide as one of their top five in Tokyo. 

Japanese food is known for its quirkiness just as much as its great flavors. Sushi rice and mochi – rice cakes formed into a wide variety of shapes and colors – can be formed into intriguing shapes and patterns which are a feast for the eyes as well as the taste buds! 

This class, in the bustling Ginza district, teaches you how to use typical Japanese ingredients to produce delightful displays – particularly fun for families with younger children. 

Like many of these operators, Art Sushi has temporarily moved to online cooking classes during the Covid-19 pandemic.

There’s no better place to learn how to cook delicious Japanese favorites than in a typical local home. Haru Cooking Class, in an authentic residential setting in northern Kyoto, offers just that. 

Visit the family in their traditional Japanese house overlooking the Kamo River. The class is highly welcoming and unpretentious, focusing on home-style favorites. Vegetarian and non-vegetarian menus are available – the latter focusing on mouthwatering Kobe beef.

A visit to Osaka is an invitation to kuidaore – eat yourself to ruin! Osaka is the established food capital of Japan, and Osakans love nothing better than eating, thinking about eating, and talking about eating!

Osakan food is hearty and filling, befitting of this hardworking city. Eat Osaka specializes in typical Japanese street food dishes such as handmade udon, yakitori kebabs, miso soup, and pickled side dishes.

Ramen nerds will well know that Fukuoka, the principal city of southern Japan’s Kyushu region, is the home of Hakata ramen – arguably the most satisfying broth of all! As such it’s considered the outright spiritual home of ramen…although that’s a fiercely contested debate all across Japan. 

Should you make it down to Fukuoka, learning more about Hakata ramen is an essential experience. This class in downtown Fukuoka takes you through the whole experience from start to finish – including building your broth, making handmade noodles, and preparing accompaniments.