Food Experiences(857)
Kyaraben Cartoon Character Bento Making Class
These kawaii cartoon character bentos are as cute as they are delicious! Learn classic Japanese cooking techniques and recipes like tamagoyaki, and put together a tasty and balanced packed bento box that’ll be the envy of the lunch crowd.
Yakitori-Making Class with a Professional Chef in Shinjuku
An izakaya staple, Japanese yakitori chicken skewers are enjoyed by many but mastered only by few. Learn how to make them from start to finish and enjoy your skewers for lunch with an instructor in a culinary school in Shinjuku (central Tokyo)!
Private Sushi Masterclass: Nigiri, Gunkan, & Maki (Kyoto)
Become a sushi samurai in Kyoto! Learn the art of crafting perfect nigiri, gunkan, and hosomaki sushi in an intimate, 2-hour class led by sushi masters with over 10 years of experience. This experience includes premium seafood and ingredients!
Ramen & Gyoza Cooking Class With a Chef in Ikebukuro
Prepare and enjoy two of Japan’s favorite dishes, gyoza dumplings and ramen noodles, in this family-friendly class only a few minutes’ walk from Ikebukuro Station! Learn the methods and recipes to make these classic dishes with a pro chef.
Maki Zushi Rolled Sushi Cooking Class in a Japanese Home
In a modern Japanese home, learn how to make classic Japanese home cooked dishes including tempura, sushi, miso soup, and a spinach-sesame dish. Learn Japanese cooking techniques, like how to make and use dashi, and experience home life in Japan.
Eat and Drink Like a Tokyo Salaryman in Shinbashi
“Work hard, play hard” embodies the mentality of many Japanese workers. This mentality is epitomized in the food scene of Shinbashi, the raucous “salaryman” district of Tokyo where business meets pleasure. Explore the area’s gastropubs on this tour!
Hokkaido Cooking Class: Learn to Make Sushi Rolls in Sapporo
Sushi rolls are one of the most versatile types of sushi. Learn how to make this comfort food from Yuki, an experienced instructor, as she welcomes you into her Sapporo kitchen. After making your own sushi roll, have a bite with green tea.
Vegan Ginza Tour
Explore the vegan scene in glitzy Ginza! Join us for an exclusive, 4-hour walking tour featuring traditional Japanese sweets, a tasty plant-based ramen, and more. Perfect for vegans, friends of vegans, or anyone who wants to try something new!
Kobe: Sake Tasting Tour at Local Breweries
Explore Kobe's sake paradise! Visit Nada, Kobe, for exceptional sake. Guided by a sake-loving expert, you’ll taste over 12 types of sake and visit some of the best breweries, learning about customs, history, and brewing techniques.
Daytime Food Tour in Osaka Dotonbori
Known as “Japan’s Kitchen,” Osaka is a city for foodies. On this tour, weave through the backstreets of the Dotonbori and Nanba neighborhoods to find the best hidden food spots and enjoy specialties like fried skewers and Michelin-rated takoyaki.
Glamping Eco Tour with Mount Fuji Views
Unwind during a 2-day glamping experience at the foot of Mt. Fuji. You’ll harvest local veggies, enjoy a yakiniku BBQ, tour a sake brewery, and take a trek to the scenic waterfalls nearby, during this sustainable eco-tour.
5-Course Tea Tasting Experience Near Meiji-jingu (Tokyo)
This meditative tea experience near Meiji-jingu Shrine in Harajuku hopes to transport you out of Tokyo’s hustle and bustle and into a tasting of selected tea sourced from Mt. Ryuso in Shizuoka served in five different ways.
Nerikiri and Mochi Wagashi Making Class in Bunkyo, Tokyo
A family-like atmosphere makes this lesson more than a way to make sweets – it’s a way to build connections! Make fruit daifuku, colorful dango skewers, and nerikiri confectioneries in a certified wagashi teacher’s home overlooking the Kanda river!
Kyoto Matcha Green Tea Tour in Uji with Lunch
Calling all matcha lovers! Uji, Kyoto is famed for its high-quality green tea. Tour the tea-making district, enjoy a tasting of various matcha teas, enjoy tea-flavored ice cream and wagashi sweets, and have a lunch of traditional Japanese dishes.
Tokyo Home Kitchen: Sushi-Making Class
Enjoy making sushi at a cozy home in Tokyo! Immerse yourself in daily Japanese life as you learn sushi-making techniques alongside a professional. Develop newfound skills, feast on a tasty lunch, and take home a recipe book at the end.
Chicken/Gluten-Free/Vegan/Halal Ramen Making Class in Tokyo
Enjoy making a hot bowl of ramen from scratch, using only the best, high quality and organic ingredients! Learn from a friendly host at a lovely private home in Kunitachi, Tokyo. Vegan, gluten-free, halal-friendly and chicken ramen options available.
Teishoku Cooking Class in Shinjuku (Five Meal Options)
Cook your own teishoku meal set at Chieko’s kitchen in central Tokyo. Choose your favorite menu and venture into Japanese home cooking: sushi, tamagoyaki, onigiri, and more!
Osaka-Style Okonomiyaki Cooking Class in Tokyo
Central to food parties and family gatherings, the Japanese savory pancake known as “okonomiyaki” is a crowdpleaser that’s also fun to make! Make okonomiyaki alongside two side dishes, with instructions from an English-speaking cooking teacher.
Yamanashi Cooking Class: Make Hoto Noodles by Lake Kawaguchi
An iconic dish of Yamanashi, learn how to make hoto—a type of flat, wide noodles—from scratch during this cooking class. Swimming in an umami broth, hoto is a classic Japanese comfort food that you’ll want to make again and again.
Osaka Cooking: Vegan Sushi-Making Class with Saeko
Learn how to make vegan sushi, prepare tofu, and a healthy miso soup with Saeko’s hands-on authentic home cooking class in Osaka! You’ll learn to cut, prepare, assemble the ingredients, and take home a recipe booklet to recreate the dishes at home.
Colorful Maki Sushi Making Class in Osaka
Need a break from typical tourist activities in Osaka? Come join Yoko-sensei in her Osaka kitchen and learn how to make colorful, delicious, and fresh rolled sushi—as well as other tasty Japanese side dishes!
Tasting and Tour at One of Tokyo’s Oldest Sake Breweries
Ozawa Shuzo sake brewery is the perfect place to catch a breath of fresh air away from the bustle of the metropolis. Taste fine sakes made using crisp water that trickles down from the surrounding mountains, then enjoy a vegetarian lunch.
Private Authentic Japanese Tea Ceremony & Wagashi in Tokyo
A genuine Japanese tea ceremony experience with interactive tea preparation and a lecture on the cultural significance and history of the ceremony. Enjoy the tea you make with traditional Japanese confections meant to be paired with matcha tea.
Learn How To Cut Sashimi From a Master of Japanese Knives
Learn the history of Japanese knives from a renowned knife instructor & industry expert, in Aoyama (Tokyo). Watch a demonstration, learn sharpening techniques, cutting skills, & participate in a cooking class to make a zuke don for lunch.
Grain Quest: Onigiri-Making and Amazake Tasting in Tokyo
In this private cooking and tasting experience in central Tokyo, you’ll learn how to make onigiri (rice balls) and take part in an amazake (fermented rice drink) tasting alongside a team of dedicated professionals.
Osu Street Food Tour in Nagoya
Explore Nagoya’s Osu Kannon Temple and Osu Shopping Street, learning about the area’s history and cultural traditions from a local tour guide. Stop by 5 street food stalls for some tasty local bites, and even draw your omikuji fortune at the temple!
Tokyo Tea Tasting: 12 Types of Matcha, Sencha, & Gyokuro
Experience a taste of Japan in Tokyo with a certified Tea Advisor who will introduce the origins & preparation of 12 types of tea. Learn about sencha, matcha, & gyokuro tea & the diverse regions they come from in an immersive tasting session.
Guided Sake or Shochu Tasting in Central Tokyo (Shimbashi)
Sip a drink of Japan’s national beverage — sake! Learn its brewing methods, culture and history from a sake expert while tasting six different varieties in Shimbashi, central Tokyo. Wrap up with a fun tasting quiz. Shochu tastings are also available!
Find The Top Gourmet Experiences in Japan
At byFood, we believe that one of the best ways to experience Japanese culture is to dive in with your chopsticks! Food is a universal human experience, something that people from all walks of life can talk about with joy and fond memories. While some might associate the smell of freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies with Christmas, the Japanese might be reminded of Japanese New Year by the smell of sweet red beans and toasted mochi. Japanese food is inextricably linked to culture and history, and it’s the celebration of these traditions that make each culture unique.
On a trip to Japan, you’ll likely plan to visit temples and shrines, Japanese parks and gardens, amusement parks and shopping districts. These areas are packed with tourists, and you could probably go back to your country without even speaking with a Japanese person, without feeling in touch with the culture at all. That’s why byFood offers hands-on, immersive food experiences in Japan with local guides, such as food tours, cooking classes, tastings, and dining experiences.
During a food tour in Japan, you can learn about the food scene in a particular area by visiting several different Japanese restaurants and establishments, or touring one place in-depth. This might be a tour of a specific neighborhood, shopping street, or market such as a fish market. Food tours also include bar hopping experiences and bike tours in Japan, which get your heart pumping as you burn off the calories from your meals (or your drinks!).
ByFood also offers cooking classes in Japan, which are hands on cooking experiences that vary in intensity. While there are many cooking classes suitable for home cooks and children, there are also intensive courses with lessons that take place over several days and offer a certificate of completion. Cooking classes can take place in cooking studios, restaurants, or homes.
Dining experiences are sit-down food and drink experiences that include experiential dining experiences like intimate dinners with a personal chef, creative themed restaurants, casual dining experiences at little eateries and izakayas, and home dining with locals.
Our food experiences also include tastings in Japan, which allow you to try different varieties of a beverage, such as tea and sake, with a local guide. You can enjoy everything from sake tastings to beer tastings to whisky tastings during a byFood tasting experiences, but it isn’t limited to just alcoholic drinks. There are also dashi and tea tastings available. The category also includes tours of breweries and distilleries that culminate in a tasting.
Whether you’re visiting Japan for the first time or the tenth, there are always new things to be discovered! Browse food experiences in Japan on byFood and find your perfect food tour, cooking class, dining experience, or tasting.