Culinary Japan: Discovering the food traditions of the mountain villages of Nagano with Emiko Davies I’m so pleased to announced that after years of requests, I am finally ready to offer my first Japanese culinary workshop. I have chosen Nagano, a place where I keep returning to again and again, first to visit friends who […] The post My first Japanese culinary workshop, December 5-10 2025 first appeared on Emiko Davies.
Culinary Japan: Discovering the food traditions of the mountain villages of Nagano with Emiko Davies
I’m so pleased to announced that after years of requests, I am finally ready to offer my first Japanese culinary workshop.
I have chosen Nagano, a place where I keep returning to again and again, first to visit friends who live here, then to explore and collect recipes and stories for my two Japanese cookbooks. It is a place I feel an affinity with, perhaps because it reminds me of my chosen home town of San Miniato — a small village with lots of wonderful producers and traditions.
We will meet in Tokyo, where hopefully you will have had some time to spend exploring. From there we take the train to Chino, Nagano, to start our culinary adventures. At the foothills of some of Nagano’s most famous mountains and only 2 hours on the train from Tokyo, we will spend 5 nights, 6 days, here cooking, eating and discovering the local traditions of this mountainous, forested, land-locked region.
While we will stay in the same area, we will move accommodation to give you a true, authentic experience. We will be in a pampering hot spring ryokan the first two nights, we will have a local homestay and we will also be in a series of shared homes of stunningly restored farmhouses the last two nights.
What: 6 days, 5 nights culinary workshop
Where: Starting and ending in Tokyo, we will be based in Nagano.
When: December 5-10, 2025
Who: Join cookbook author Emiko Davies on this food-focussed trip. This is for anyone interested in delving into Japanese food traditions, seasoned travelers, first timers, the only requisite is curiosity!
The itinerary:
Day 1, December 5:
We will meet at Shinjuku station and take the train (a 2 hour ride) to Chino, where we will head straight to a lovely cafe for a seasonal lunch. We will then take a walking tour of Sasahara village before we drive up the mountain to our ryokan for the night, the stunning Shinyu Tateshina Onsen, where we will be treated to the natural hot springs (they also have private bathing facilities) and an exquisite dinner.
Day 2, December 6:
This morning we will head to Sasahara village to cook with the local grannies. After lunch, we visit a Kanten producer and you will learn why this mountain landscape with its cold winters and fresh spring water is so suited to creating Kanten jelly from seaweed. We head back to our ryokan for a relaxing evening and dinner.
Day 3, December 7:
This morning we visit a tofu maker and make our very own fresh tofu together. We will then do a cooking class with Emiko, learning to make oyaki (fried dumplings), a speciality of Nagano. Tonight we will have a rural village homestay with locals, which includes dinner and breakfast (cooked with the host).
Day 4, December 8:
After breakfast, your homestay host will take you to Kamosuya, where we will meet for a miso making experience and lunch around a bonfire. After lunch, we head to Yamaura stay, a series of beautifully restored traditional Japanese farmhouses. We will have a bento dinner catered to us that evening in our home away from home.
Day 5, December 9:
After breakfast, we will visit the Togariishi Museum of Jomon Archaeology, where we will have a tour of the museum and then an outdoor Jomon food experience to better understand this hunter-gatherer culture of the ancient Japanese (14,000-300 BC). We then return to Yamaura stay for a relaxing afternoon and dinner.
Day 6, December 10:
After breakfast, we have a soba dumpling workshop (buckwheat dumplings called soba gaki). These dumplings are obtained by adding water to the flour and quickly stirring over low heat, a beloved home style dish that allows you to fully enjoy the flavour of the buckwheat flour. After a light lunch, we say goodbye to Nagano and return to Tokyo on the train.
Included in this 6 day, 5 night trip:
- Accommodation for 5 nights, including two nights in an onsen with natural hot springs, a village homestay and two nights in the beautifully restored farmhouses of Yamura Stay
- All meals during the workshop, including at local eateries
- Daily cooking classes (5 in total), including a miso making class
- Visits to a kanten and tofu producer
- Visit to the Togariishi Museum of Jomon Archaeology
- Walking tour of Sasahara village
- Train fare to and from Tokyo
There is a maximum of 14 spots. I have also prepared a travel guide for guests who intend on traveling further or extending their trip in Tokyo (but see the bottom of the post for my articles on Tokyo addresses for some more ideas).
Cost: 521,270 JPY per person (tax is included; roughly 3,000 euro or 5,500 AUD)
Book now / see here for more details!
For some tips on Tokyo, please also take a look at these posts:
Kappabashi street for all your kitchen needs
Also check out Wabunka for some beautiful experiences in Tokyo or other Japanese cities, like a kintsugi workshop, tea ceremony or wagashi making workshop (note, I do make a small commission on bookings through their website, though not at any cost to you).
To get excited about this trip, I also highly recommend reading Lost Japan by Alex Kerr, who restored the farmhouses we will stay in on our last two nights, Yamaura Stay. He originally wrote this book in 1993 (in Japanese!), a sort of memoir that begins with how he stumbled across and restored a 300 year old thatched roof house in the Iya Valley and how much Japan has changed over those decades. It is still in print and it is one of the most beautiful books about Japan I have ever read.
The post My first Japanese culinary workshop, December 5-10 2025 first appeared on Emiko Davies.
