A tonkatsu sandwich of fresh pork loin covered in a crisp bread-crumb coating and wrapped in lovely soft bread, is wonderful when you feel like treating yourself for lunch.

The theme for this episode is "cutting".

The theme for this episode is a hand-rolled sushi party that children can enjoy, too!

The theme for this episode is sautéing.

Our main dish in this episode is udon, the Japanese noodles that are becoming popular worldwide.

Rika grew up in a large city named Fukuoka. It is considered to be one of Japan's culinary destinations with everything from delicious street food to high-end cuisine. Today, she is making 3 dishes and all of them are local Fukuoka specialties.

The theme of this episode is "Deep frying."

In this episode, we're going to take a look at Kushiage or deep-fried skewers, one of the popular local foods of Osaka's unique food culture.

In this episode, we will learn about Nikujaga, the very popular Japanese food.

Our main dish in this episode is Yakisoba, a staple of Japanese summer festivals.

Our theme of this episode is handmade soba noodles. Our teacher will be the handmade soba master, Akila Inouye, showing us a fail-safe method for delicious soba noodles that even beginners will have no trouble with! We'll be cooking mori-soba, the best way to enjoy their natural buckwheat flavor.

Our theme of this episode is marinating, and our teacher will be Chef Saito, mentor to a number of famous chefs worldwide. We'll be learning how to prepare fish by tossing it with salt to remove the moisture, then marinating it in vinegar. Vinegar marination is a technique invented long ago in Japan to preserve fresh fish, and has been passed down for generations. It's great for not just preserving fish, but for using the vinegar to give fish a delicious flavor that's unlike sashimi. We'll also be learning a modern spin on the recipe that's rolled up in nori with uniquely Japanese herbs — don't miss it!

Our main dish in this episode is made with edamame, in season for summer and finding popularity all around the world! East meets west for our edamame pasta dish, and with a cold eggplant salad on the side, and the popular Japanese summer dessert mizu-yokan, all three of our recipes will help you stave off the summer heat!

The theme of this episode is pan-frying. Chef Saito will be showing us a Japanese twist on steak, a worldwide favorite. The secret is the ume-sesame sauce: the tartness of the sauce goes perfectly with the fattiness of the steak, for a clean, delicious flavor.

Our theme this week is the American-born Japanese food, the California Roll. Featuring colorful fillings like salmon and avocado, and with decorations on the outside, too. We'll also be making a side dish that'll teach you the secrets of how to use the sushi staples, wasabi and nori.

There are many variations of curry, which is popular around the world. It is said curry was originally brought to Japan from the U.K. and it has evolved, adjusting to Japanese palates. In this episode, Rika is making Japanese-style curry and rice. Using her creativity, she makes it extra special.

Our main dish in this episode is menchi katsu, just as delicious hot and fresh as it is cooled down. Mix meat and vegetables, make patties, and bread them. Fry them up and they're nice and crunchy on the outside, juicy on the inside, and absolutely irresistible. We'll also take a look at three great sides to go perfectly with menchi katsu in your next bento lunch box!

Our theme in this episode is simmering.

The theme of this episode is deep-frying. We'll be using top-quality flounder and preparing it ikada-age style, making even the bones delicious. We'll fillet the flounder into five pieces, soak it in salt water, and fry them up to look like little rafts that could float on water.

The theme of this episode is "grilling." We'll be introducing the Japanese favorite, kabayaki. We'll learn the easy way to spread open sardines for kabayaki without even using a knife. We'll also learn about how to make a variation on kabayaki by flaking the sardines and adding dashi stock, to make delicious hitsumabushi.

Our theme of this episode is deep-frying. We'll be working with mushrooms, in season for fall, and making Autumn Kakiage mixed tempura with a variety of ingredients, like lotus root, maitake mushrooms, scallops, shrimp, and more, for a deliciously crunchy and colorful dish. We'll also make a variation on the recipe, letting the flavor of nori shine in our chicken tenderloin nori-fry.

Our theme this of episode is the fall harvest. We'll be cooking a meal with the ingredients and flavors of fall. Our main dish will be salmon and three types of mushrooms, wrapped in foil and baked. We'll also be making beautiful sweet potatoes simmered in syrup, with the purple of the skins contrasting with the yellow of the inside. Finally, for our third dish, we'll be making a delicious bacon and burdock root soup with dashi made from kombu kelp and bonito flakes.

Our theme of this episode is warm noodles, full of the best of land and sea, to make cold winter days better. The port city of Nagasaki, on the island of Kyushu in southwestern Japan, remained open to foreign trade even when Japan closed itself off from the 1600s to the 1800s. As a result, Nagasaki developed its own unique food culture, and this week Rika will be making her own version of Nagasaki's famous noodle dish, champon.

Our theme of this episode is sushi. We'll be introducing sushi, that most famous of Japanese foods. We'll invite Chef Yasuda, who has dedicated himself to sushi for thirty years, including running New York's top sushi shop. He'll show us how to make Edo-style sushi with the finest ingredients, sharing the secrets of how to cook the rice, prepare the fish, put the sushi together, and even the best way to eat it. He'll also teach us about nori-wrapped negitoro rolls.

Our theme of this episode is kneading.

Our main focus this episode is on shabu-shabu, a famous Japanese dish on par with sushi or tempura. We'll be using soy milk, a convenient way to get the healthy protein of soybeans, to make the shabu-shabu broth with Chinese and Japanese chili spices and use it to quickly and deliciously cook plenty of pork and vegetables.

This week, we'll be making the famous Japanese dish tempura, but with a twist! For our main dish, we'll be making rice balls — a Japanese favorite — with shrimp and scallop tempura inside. We'll also be making a light beef shank soup to help warm the body on these cold winter days, as well as a delicious sauté made with vitamin-rich spinach, fresh cream, sesame oil, and soy sauce, for a surprisingly delicious combination of flavors.

Our theme for this episode is "simmering." We'll be using the unique Japanese ingredient, koya tofu, as our main ingredient, and simmering it alongside three other ingredients. Koya tofu is freeze-dried, so it soaks up soups and liquids, making it a delicious ingredient to use. Our other ingredients, shrimp and chrysanthemum leaves, are both simmered with different methods, and then all three ingredients are brought together at the end for a finished result as beautiful as it is delicious. We'll also be making a unique variant on fried chicken, using crumbled koya tofu for its breading.

Our theme in this episode is marinating.

Our theme of this episode is making hot pots!