A bird’s-eye view of the bustling dining area of an irori restaurant in Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan: guests sit on the wooden floor around a large circular irori (sunken hearth) with a cast-iron cauldron, arranging their bowls of food. The irori serves as a cooking area, a source of heat and the focal point for socialising; the combination of a wooden beamed ceiling, shoji windows and the smoke from the fire is typical of traditional mountain villages in the Japanese Alps