A Japanese home kitchen: cook five weeknight dishes in a real Asakusa flat

What Japanese people actually cook on a Tuesday night isn't sushi or ramen. It's teriyaki chicken, a rolled omelette, sesame-dressed greens, miso soup and a pot of rice — made in a cramped apartment kitchen with no island, no ten-drawer tool chest. That is the kitchen you're cooking in today, in a real flat in Asakusa.

It starts with a neighbourhood market run alongside your host: picking vegetables, picking the cut of chicken, and hearing why Japanese supermarkets sell fish in fillets rather than whole. Back at the flat the rice goes on first — the cast-iron pot takes the longest, a sequencing habit online recipes rarely mention. Tamagoyaki comes next, while hands are still fresh, because it's the hardest one: thin pours, rolled layer by layer, each roll made while the top is still slightly wet. The other three cook in parallel, which is how a home meal is actually assembled.

Then everyone lays the table and eats what they cooked, with the host — this part isn't on a timer. You leave with written recipes, and more usefully, with the knowledge of what to buy at the Asian grocery near you to make it again. Six people maximum, English throughout.