Top Kyoto Unique Experiences

We had such a wonderful cooking class with Midori today! We learned how to make delicious gyoza, onigiri, and ramen, and every single dish turned out amazing. There was so much food that we left completely full and happy! From the moment we arrived, Midori welcomed us into her home like old friends. She was incredibly warm, personable, and welcoming, creating a relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere from start to finish. The class struck the perfect balance between hands-on cooking and watching her demonstrate techniques, so we not only had fun but also came away feeling like we truly learned how to make each of these dishes ourselves. Everything was explained clearly, the food was absolutely delicious, and we left feeling confident that we can recreate these recipes at home. Thank you so much, Midori, for such a memorable experience. It was one of the highlights of our trip to Japan, and we would highly recommend this class to anyone visiting Kyoto!

We could not have asked for a more gracious and charming host. Kana and assistant Kevin were incredibly friendly and made the experience one for my teen/tween daughters and I to remember. After a day of sightseeing and exploring, entering their sushi making kitchen and dining space felt immediately peaceful. Making sushi with Kana was engaging and informative as we chatted the night away. Kana and Kevin were kind, and freely shared their knowledge and insight into Japan with us. It was like having dinner with friends. Highly recommend!

We spent our day in Uji before taking the train and walking over to the location for this event (which is conveniently located on Google Maps). While we were expecting something that was heavily manufactured for tourists, we realized this is just a small kitchen/room in the middle of this small town with 2-3 people running the facility. We were also expecting to be attending this tasting with a number of other people, but we were surprised to learn we were the only couple for this timed tasting, which made everything feel like a personalized and private event — perfect for our honeymoon. Kiyomi was our sake sommelier and she made our experience one to remember. She took care to build out the 1.5 hours with an excellent presentation on learning how to read sake labels and understanding exactly what goes into the process of making sake — all before even taking a taste of the 7 curated sake bottles. What was nice, too, was that each sake was paired with food to help you differentiate and try on new tastes, which Kiyomi provided note cards so that we can take home and rediscover what worked for us personally. We truly had a wonderful learning and tasting experience and we would not hesitate doing this again with a different variation of the excursion, as they offer multiple versions. Highly, highly recommended!