In this guide

We run Ramen Cooking Tokyo with one wish: that a few hours in our small kitchen in Tsukishima become one of the reasons you are glad you came to Japan. Not because of what you cooked — because of who you cooked it with. It is why our tagline reads the way it does: Beyond Cooking — Feel the Connection.

Quick Answer: On 25 August 2026, Ramen Cooking Tokyo received Gold in the Championing Cultural Diversity category of the ICRT Responsible Tourism Awards worldwide 2026, judged by an international panel chaired by Emeritus Professor Harold Goodwin, founder of ICRT global. The judges singled out the fact that our hosts are not professional chefs — guests cook alongside a peer instead of being taught by an authority figure, which the judges said removes the traditional power difference between host and visitor and makes genuine conversation possible.

What we do for that wish

A few of the things we do because of it:

  • The people cooking beside you are not professional chefs. They are Japanese people from everyday life, and that is by design. Nobody is standing at the front of the room. You cook alongside a person, and the conversation goes where it goes — children, school, everyday life, the hometowns we grew up in, whether we eat ramen at home.
  • The ramen is home-style, on purpose. A restaurant’s bowl is built for a restaurant’s kitchen. Ours is built for yours: a broth you can reproduce on an ordinary stove, nigiri shaped by hand, and the detailed recipes we send you after class, so that the meal you made in Tokyo can be made again for someone at home. We would love you to discover for yourself that ramen made at home can taste this good.
  • We keep it small and unhurried. At most eight guests, two and a half to three hours, entirely in English.

What you make in class — shoyu ramen and hand-shaped nigiri, with sake to pair

One guest described the result better than we have managed to:

“It was one of those rare experiences where cooking becomes more than cooking: a cultural exchange, a conversation, and a memory we’ll keep with us for a long time.”

— Augustine, Google review (November 2025)

Guests and our cast around the table after cooking together at Ramen Cooking Tokyo

And then, this August

We had been doing this quietly for two years. On 25 August 2026, Ramen Cooking Tokyo received Gold in the Championing Cultural Diversity category of the ICRT Responsible Tourism Awards worldwide 2026 — one of sixteen finalists chosen from around the world across five categories, judged by an international panel chaired by Emeritus Professor Harold Goodwin, founder of ICRT global.

Gold award certificate — Championing Cultural Diversity, ICRT Responsible Tourism Awards worldwide 2026, Ramen Cooking Tokyo

What the judges wrote

“Ramen Cooking Tokyo enables visitors to cook authentic Japanese food alongside local hosts rather than professional chefs. The judges praised its peer-to-peer approach, which removes the traditional power difference between host and visitor and creates opportunities for genuine conversation and cultural connection. More than 2,000 guests from 48 countries have participated since 2024.”

— 2026 ICRT Responsible Tourism Awards worldwide announced

The judges’ full citations for every winner are published on ICRT’s site.

We are honoured

We are honoured, and a little overwhelmed. A jury of this calibre weighed our small kitchen against work from around the world, and we are glad to stand alongside the other Gold winners, whose work we admire.

What comes next

We will keep at it. The award does not change the class — the same small room, the same people, the same bowl you take home in your hands and in your head — but it does make us want to do it a little better every day.

Guests from around the world sharing the meal they cooked at Ramen Cooking Tokyo

If you are ever in Tokyo, come and see us. We would love to cook with you, and even more to talk with you.

Beyond Cooking — Feel the Connection.

Frequently Asked Questions

Has Ramen Cooking Tokyo won a responsible tourism award?

Yes. On 25 August 2026, Ramen Cooking Tokyo received Gold in the Championing Cultural Diversity category of the ICRT Responsible Tourism Awards worldwide 2026, judged by an international panel chaired by Emeritus Professor Harold Goodwin, founder of ICRT global.

Why did the judges give Ramen Cooking Tokyo a Gold award?

The judges praised what they called a peer-to-peer approach: guests cook alongside local hosts rather than professional chefs, which removes the traditional power difference between host and visitor and creates opportunities for genuine conversation and cultural connection.

Are the instructors at Ramen Cooking Tokyo professional chefs?

No. Our cast are all Japanese, and none of them are restaurant-trained chefs. That is deliberate, and it is the specific thing the ICRT judges identified as the reason the class works.

What happens after a Gold award at the ICRT Responsible Tourism Awards worldwide?

Gold winners from the worldwide awards go forward against the Gold winners from ICRT’s five regional programmes — Africa, Europe, Latin America, the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia — for a Global Responsible Tourism Award. The result is announced in London on 2 November 2026.

Does winning an award change the class itself?

No. The class is unchanged: two and a half to three hours, entirely in English, a maximum of eight guests, 20,000 yen per person all-inclusive.