SOONEAR is a small Japanese company that manufactures kitchen tools — and publishes the English-language guides we could never find when we started looking for them.
Those two things are connected. Most English writing about Japanese cookware is written by people who have only ever seen these tools in photographs. We spend our days in workshops with the people who make them.
What we make
A short line of tools, each one built because we tested what was available to English-speaking buyers and found it wanting.
- KOTE2 Carbon Steel Wok. One-piece with no rivets, in 12", 13" and 14". Every size is roughly 30% lighter than a standard wok of the same diameter, which is why it can actually be tossed one-handed. Round bottom, gas only. Ships bare: you season it yourself, and we filmed how.
- Expandable Stainless Otoshibuta. An adjustable Japanese drop lid, 5–9 inches, for simmering.
- Mandoline Slicer. Japanese stainless blade, 0.5–2.0 mm adjustable, three optional blades, side-mounted adjuster that does not shift mid-cut.
- KOTE2 Yukihira Saucepan. Japanese stainless, two spout sizes, dual quart and millilitre scales.
You can see all three under Our Tools.
What we write about
Four subjects. Not everything about Japan — only the things we can speak about from the inside.
- Food & Kitchen — tools, techniques, pantry staples, and honest verdicts on washoku restaurants abroad.
- Onsen & Ritual — bathing, bath salts, tea and incense. The daily rituals nobody explains properly in English.
- Visiting Japan — eSIM, rail passes, what to actually pack. Written by someone who lives here.
- Zen & Mind — zazen, bonsai, shodo, wabi-sabi. Practice, not aesthetics-as-decoration.
We film it, too
Our workshop videos live on YouTube. The seasoning walkthrough has been watched over ten thousand times, mostly by people who had just unboxed a bare carbon steel pan and did not know what to do next.
Watch us do it
Filmed in our own workshop. Reading about the colour shift is not the same as seeing it.
How we work
We buy or make what we review
Everything we recommend has been in our hands. Where we have not personally handled something, the article says so plainly.
We test on ordinary equipment
A wok that only performs on a 100,000 BTU restaurant burner is useless advice for a home kitchen. We test on a standard domestic range, because that is what you have.
We mark our own products, every time
We sell things and we also review competing things. That is a conflict of interest, so we handle it in the open: our own products carry a “Made by SOONEAR” label wherever they appear, they are judged on the same criteria as everything else, and we state clearly where a competitor beats us.
Full detail on how this site earns money is on our Affiliate Disclosure page.
Who runs this
SOONEAR is operated by Cross Line Japan Co., Ltd., represented by Taizo Yamashita. Company registration details, address and contact information are published on our Japanese legal notice page, as required under Japanese commercial law.
Feel Japan NEAR, Use Japan Quality SOON.