Workshop

We had our first workshop of the new year! On January 13th, I held my third parent-child wagashi class. This time we made “Hanabira-mochi” and “Ume-shaped (Japanese plum) Nerikiri” to celebrate the New Year. Hanabira-mochi is a limited-time sweet sold in wagashi shops during the New Year season. It’s known for being used in the Urasenke tea ceremony during the first tea ceremony of the New Year. This delightful treat consists of soft white and red mochi filled with miso-an paste and candied burdock root. The soft mochi texture, slight miso flavor, and burdock scent creates a harmonious blend of textures and flavors. I personally love this sweet – enough

We recently held our second children’s wagashi workshop. Due to the popularity of the previous one, were many people interested in participating, so we increased the capacity from last time. A total of six families (13 people including children) joined, and one of them was from England. After Halloween last time, we immediately started planning our next lesson and decided to focus on designs related to Christmas. We used nerikiri again this time to create two types of wagashi: Santa and a Christmas tree. Santa was filled with red bean paste, and the tree contained a milk-flavored white bean paste. Similar to last time, we divided the ingredients for each

First Children’s Wagashi Workshop On October 21st, I hosted my very first children’s wagashi workshop. I used a local rental space in Nara City for the 2-hour workshop. Since it was my first attempt, I limited the participants to four families, totaling 8 attendees, including children. You might be wondering why I decided to organize this children’s wagashi workshop. I had noticed that most Japanese children these days have limited exposure to traditional Japanese sweets like wagashi, despite being Japanese themselves. I wanted to educate the future generation, as they go on to represent Japan in the international community, about our traditional culture and enable them to proudly share Japanese