Cooking Lessons?

hey everyone,

I've been in Japan for about a year now, and one of my most valued relationships is one that I've made with the owners of a decent sized izakaya near where I live. I used to go eat there a lot due to convenience and also because the food is just delicious. Anyway, eventually I made friends with them and expressed my interest in cooking. The chef offered to teach me some washoku and I never looked back. Now I go into the restaurant to cook about three times a week and it's been a great experience. I don't get paid, but basically I get three things from them: 1. Professional Japanese cooking instruction. 2. Mandatory Japanese language practice. 3. Dinner on the house.

How sweet is that?

Now, I've heard that this is a common thing among foreigners. I've met a couple people with similar relationships and I was wondering if anyone on these forums has the same.
I'd like to hear a little bit about your experience.

窶堙ｦ窶堙ｫ窶堋ｵ窶堋ｭ窶堋ｨ窶堙銀?堋ｪ窶堋｢窶堋ｵ窶堙懌?堋ｷﾂ！

Hey Namioto!
What a great experience you are having in Japan! You must be getting so much out of it. Can't beat "Dinner on the house"!
The thing I love about izakaya is that even though it's so cheap to eat and drink as much as you can, food is good.

I worked at a few restaurants like tempura, yakitori, unagi places and learned so much just from watching the chefs cook.

Hey, you can post some of the recipes you are learning.

Wow, cool experiance. At least the Asian food store in my town has cool owners and tells us how to cook things properly and gives us good advise.