My Journey to Cooking in Japan (And How I Adapted)

Moving to Japan changed my cooking in ways I both forecast and didn’t. Fortunately, these limitations proved to be an opportunity to adapt my cookery style and learn new tricks and habits along the way. As a home cook in Japan, you simply cannot ignore seasonality at the grocery store.

If you compare North American and Japanese cookbooks, you will quickly notice smaller carb and protein portions in Japan. For example, the Epicurious recipes I often use call for 350– 454 grams of noodles for four people.

By contrast, the Delish Kitchen app I use in Japan calls for just 250–300 grams for four servings. Meat-heavy donburi (rice bowl) recipes peak at around 300 grams of meat for four people.

Back home, my North American bolognese or chili recipes called for about 450 grams for the same number of people. Small Space Cooking This is considered big for people living in Tokyo.

Perhaps the biggest kitchen challenge I face in Japan is cooking with less. Compared even to my North American apartments, my Japanese kitchen offers far less space and electrical power to feed a family.

I often have to turn off the AC or house fans just to run my oven for a few minutes. Preparation The Local Way Cold Chinese Noodles ( hiyashi chuka ) Limited counter space often forces my prep work out of the kitchen and onto the dining table, creating extra cleanup. Over time, I learned to rely on local elements and methods to make my preparation practical, seasonal, and regional.

My rice cooker and tabletop hot plate free up precious burner space, and my combination microwave-oven helps even more. Import shops like Kaldi Coffee Farm and Bon Repas help fill the gap, but they still cannot heal the Montreal bagel-shaped hole in my heart.

Shop for Kitchen Gear and Baking Supplies Kappabashi is hard to miss. If you need to test gear in person—especially when adapting to a compact Japanese kitchen—these brick-and-mortar stores. Specialty shops are your best bet: Budget Basics & Everyday Upgrades Affordable tools, space-saving gadgets, and everyday essentials. ¥100 Stores (Daiso, Seria, Can☆Do): Great for small basics like spatulas, measuring spoons, and bento tools. The Baker’s Sanctuary: Tomiz, Cotta, & Import Shops Standard Japanese supermarkets sell tiny 100-gram bags of flour and hard-to-find vanilla.

For serious bakers, you need specialty suppliers: Tomiz : The go-to physical shop inside station malls for kilogram bags of bread flour, specialty yeasts, high-fat butter, block chocolate and compact cake tins.