Seasonal Japanese home cooking with Hisako and Atsuo

Meet Hisako and Atsuo

Hisako learned to cook from her mother and sister and is passionate about sharing Japanese home cooking with travelers using fresh and seasonal ingredients. Her other passion is music - Hisako studied classical music at the Guild Hall School of Music in London for two years. She has a beautiful singing voice and is a professional piano player. Hisako also teaches the piano as a profession, both classical music and popular songs. Atsuo has a tech consulting office in Kyoto and is a match maker between high tech companies in USA and Japan.

What to expect

Please note menu might vary. If there are particular dishes you are interested in trying, please include your request in the booking form.

In-home meal (1 - 4 guests) Hisako and Atsuo’s home is located in the residential and suburban Ohtsu – a local and peaceful suburb which is a 30-minute train ride from Kyoto main station. Hisako and Atsuo will welcome you into their beautiful home, decorated with flowers from their garden and photographs of their family taken throughout the years they have lived there. The living and kitchen area have an open-plan, are bright and feature a western-style dining table used in summer and a sunken, kotatsu – a traditional, low, heated table that they use in winter. The special flooring around the kotatsu opens up, allowing visitors to hang their legs beneath it instead of having to cross them. Their home is a typical modern Japanese home with traditional and western influences. Your meal may include dishes such as nuta (octopus, green onion, and white miso), sushi roll, Japanese pumpkin side and miso soup. Your meal will conclude with a homemade bavarois, an egg, milk, raisin and pineapple dessert.

Your experience will end on a musical note, with Hisako playing and singing one of her favorite songs.

Cooking experience (1 - 4 guests) Your cooking class will begin with a short introduction to miso, a fundamental element of Japanese cooking. There are many kinds of miso and Hisako's introduction will help to demystify the varieties and their usage. You will learn to make 2-3 authentic Japanese dishes with Hisako in her kitchen that you will later share at the dining table. Dishes that you may cook together are miso soup, egg roll and octopus nuta salad or tempura. You can expect the cooking portion of the experience to last an hour and a half.

PERSONALLY VETTED REVIEW

A Traveling Spoon ambassador visited this host. Here is their personal review.

Hisako and Atsuo are wonderful hosts! They welcomed me warmly into their cozy family home and put a heart-warming amount of effort into making my cooking and dining experience with them as enjoyable as possible. Their hospitality stretched to making an enormous amount of delicious food! The highlights of which were the seasonal tempura that we cooked together and Hisako’s delicious, creamy bavarois dessert, served with a specially selected green tea. Not only was I treated to a wonderful foodie experience, but also a musical one as Hisako is a professional singer and pianist. After dinner, she put on a mini-performance that blew me away! Although a little shy at first (since it was her first-time hosting) Hisako was incredibly sweet. Her husband is a very fluent speaker of English and an interesting individual. A wonderful couple and an unforgettable experience! Thank you, Hisako and Atsuo.

Roxy, Traveling Spoon Ambassador