Japanese Breakfast Cooking Class with Tokyo English Teacher

Few things are better than a Japanese breakfast — there’s even a band named after it. Served in most households, a typical Japanese breakfast usually comprises only healthy and unadorned dishes like grilled fish, natto (fermented soybeans) and small pickled dishes.

This cooking class in Tokyo’s Kanda Jimbocho neighborhood will teach you how to make a Japanese breakfast of your own, under the guidance of your host Michiko.

Michiko is one of the rare few just as skilled in the classroom as she is in the kitchen. Before becoming a culinary instructor, she taught English at a high school level for 20 years. Now armed with the linguistic skill to hold home cooking classes for English-speaking visitors from overseas, she’s made it her mission to show the world the wonders of Japanese home cooking.

The day kicks off by meeting Michiko at her kitchen studio, where after a short briefing, she’ll take you right into it. A standard Japanese breakfast contains several different items to accompany the rice, and Michiko will walk you through how to make the basics: dashimaki tamago (rolled omelet made with dashi broth), seasonal grilled fish, onigiri rice balls and miso soup. Michiko’s help makes everything very simple: the hardest thing is probably dealing with the anticipation of finally sitting down to eat everything.

Once you’re done, you’ll set the table with your fellow classmates and sit down to enjoy everything you’ve prepared. It’s a lot of dishes, but Michiko has your back: she’ll have prepared English recipes for you to take home, so you can make them again yourself in your own kitchen.

Fully invigorated by a hearty breakfast, you’ll then have plenty of energy to stroll through the streets of the Jimbocho neighborhood. With a high concentration of used bookstores, Jimbocho is called Tokyo’s Book Town. Here, you’ll find everything from rare books, vintage magazines, unique stationery and more.