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Wagashi Workshop in London

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Dear Wagashi Lovers,

Your long waiting is over! I am pleased to announce that the ‘Wagashi’ Japanese Sweets Making Workshop in London will be held next month. The theme of the workshop is “Autumn Colour” and we are going to make ‘Momiji’ Japanese maple, Ginkgo leaf and Chrysanthemum. All the sweets we will make are vegan and gluten free.


Although it will be held at our usual venue, the Havan Store, because of the concern regarding the pandemic, this time we’ll have two sessions of a smaller class with a limited number of participants.

Wagashi Making Workshop in Autumn

  • Date: the 13th November (Saturday)
  • Time: 11:30 – 13:00 / 14:45  – 16:15

The ticket sales have just started. For getting your seat could you please visit:

https://thehavan.com/product-category/event/

Hope to see you there.

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Wagashi Workshop in January

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It was more than a month ago but the first Japanese sweet making workshop of this year ended wonderfully. It became the workshop with the biggest attendees of mine. Everybody was very enthusiastic and the class went very smoothly.

Wagashi Making Workshop in January

Jan p1-2The class didn’t have just many participants, it had several different nationalities of people with four male. It was very balanced class. I mentioned that the last class in December we had a group of friends using the class as the occasion to celebrate a birthday girl. In this January class we had not one, but two birthday girls so it had a very happy atmosphere for all of us. I was pleased that my workshop has been chosen for a celebration event and hope it will continue having more birthday girls/boys in the future.

Jan3

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The 1st Workshop of the Year 2020

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I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas/New Year Holiday. After a long great rest I am sure people are ready for the new challenge in this brand new year 2020. I have prepared the Wagashi Making Workshop in the early spring theme for you.

 

Wagashi Making Workshop in January

This will be the first Wagashi Workshop this year so the theme is early spring. I thought several ideas and chose these three designs for this workshop which include a Snow Rabbit and ‘Ume’ plum flower in two ways.

Jan p1-2

on: the 26th / January (Sunday), 13:00 – 15:00 
at: The Havan Store (262 Kensington High Street, London W8 6ND)

As the name says a Snow Rabbit is supposed to be snow made into a rabbit shape. It is a traditional children’s custom in a snowy area in Japan. The ears are normally made with two long leaves so that the snow rabbit we are going to make is also having green ears.

The Plum flower is a symbol of New Year. It is almost the first flower to appear in a garden when the weather is still severe so it’s thought to be something delightful and brings happiness.

One of the plum designs we will create is a flower by using a traditional technique. You will learn how to use the wooden tool and your hand to make the sweet into a lovely flower shape. In the second plum flower design I want to show the image of plum blossoms opening on branches in early spring. I am planning to set this one as the free designing sweet and hope I will see lots of different looking sweets designed by creative participants.

The sweets we will make are all Vegan and Gluten free.

[The tickets] for this workshop are available now from here (←click here to the Link). The class is limited to 9 people only so don’t miss out on this great opportunity!

Wagashi Workshop in December

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Since December has begun it seems like my time has been passing so quickly. We had Christmas already and now we have only one day left before New Year’s Eve. I had a Wagashi Making Workshop in December and that was already about a month ago.

On one Sunday afternoon people gathered in the cosy basement space of the Havan Store for making the Christmas themed Wagashi together. The participants were consisted of four groups which were two friends groups, two sisters and one individual person. The youngest attendee this time was one of the sisters who was 12 years old girl and who’d wanted to join us in our previous Halloween themed workshop but couldn’t. So it was my great pleasure that we had her for this session as one of attendees.

One of the friends groups of three girls came to our event as the birthday celebration of one of the girls’. The birthday girl seemed to be a big Japanese culture lover and it was a brilliant way to spend a day together with her and I felt privileged that they chose my workshop for this memorable occasion.

Wagashi Making Workshop in the Christmas Theme

Chris adI chose three designs for this workshop. They were a Snowman, a Christmas Pudding and a Christmas Tree. I always enjoy seeing that participans get creative and make the sweets in their own way so I normally keep my examples quite simple and leave some space that attendees can develop by themselves. After deciding these three sweets there was a litle doubt in my mind that there might not be enough room to show their creativity, however, I was very wrong. All of the participants used all the materials cleverly and created something remarkable in the end.

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Market Season has Arrived!

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When the last month of the year arrives, I always become much busier than any other season. It’s because December is the month for the Christmas Market. I have been getting a stall in a local Market since 2012, but this year I had a chance to join to other stall holders in another Japanese Market at the end of November.

Yokimono Market4

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Japanese Sweet Making Workshop in London in December

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How time flies! Right after posting the report of the Halloween themed Workshop it is already time to announce the workshop for December. Since it will be in December the theme of the workshop is Christmas, I’ve been considering what kind of Japanese sweets I should make with the participants?

I always take a lot of time to decide the sweet designs to make with workshop attendees. I consider many elements such as if the design is seasonal, and if is too simple or too difficult for first time attendees.

Wagashi Making Workshop in December

Before finalising the three sweets, I tried several designs. I wanted to make a Christmas Tree. I have made several types of Tree in the past but never made one in the workshop yet. When I was thinking about the possibilities, I suddenly got a brilliant idea. I was very excited and was confident that it would go well, but when I tried making it, it was far too difficult to create the shape.

Chris ad

on: the 1st / December (Sunday), 13:00 – 15:00 
at: The Havan (262 Kensington High Street, London W8 6ND)

So we will make these three sweets. If the attendees would want to go more creative they can decorate the tree with any shapes such as an angel, Christmas sock, candle or present boxes.

The sweets we will make are all Vegan and Gluten free.

We continue having the Havan Store as the venue since it is a very beautiful and comfortable space with very hospitable owners who are interested in Japanese culture. I was pleased to see that all the participants in the previous workshop loved the shop and their thick and creamy special Matcha green tea.

[The tickets] for this workshop are available now from here (←click here to the Link). The class is limited to 10 people only so don’t miss out on this great opportunity!

I have mentioned about the 13 years old girl who wanted to join us for the Halloween workshop. I am very happy to tell you that she is joining us with her mother for this Christmas one. It is going to be another great one! If you would like to join us, small number of seats still available.

Wagashi Workshop in London for Halloween

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October poster2It was already two weeks ago. Just before the Halloween night came I had hosted my Japanese Sweet Making Workshop in the Halloween theme. As you can probably imagine it was such a fun class with all the fun loving participants. We gathered in a newly open shop in Kensington High Street on Saturday morning. I planned to make three sweets for this day. Although one of them was originally the purple flower in the photo on the right side, I got the better idea in the last minute and three designs we created were Jack-O’-Lantern, Ghost and Frankenstein’s Monster.

 

Wagashi Making Workshop in the Halloween Theme

So all of us sat comfortably at the table at my new workshop venue that is a lovely shop with lots of Halloween related decoration. The owners of the shop love Halloween and also Japanese culture so it was the perfect venue and they were very enthusiastic about this event.

Hallo 12

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Frankenstein’s Monster Appears in the Workshop!

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NNNGWAAAAAASHI!

I am the Frankenstein’s Monster. Please come to Make and Eeeet Meeee!

oct Poster5

I am going to have WAGASHI Japanese Sweet Making Workshop this Saturday. The original sweet selection I was planning to make at the workshop is these three in the following photo. I chose the purple flower because it is a traditional Japanese sweet shape and you can learn how to use the Wagashi tool and your fingers well. However, the theme of this event is Halloween. It’s the only occasion that you can make anything crazy. So I was searching for some design which is easy to make and attractive, as well as looks very Halloween!

October poster2

on: the 19th / October (Saturday), 11:30 – 13:30 
at: The Havan (262 Kensington High Street, London W8 6ND)

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Wagashi Making Workshop in October

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Oh, Nooooo, we are in October! It’s been raining every day and cold winter is coming soon! The sky is dark and miserable. I already miss summer. However, for the Japanese sweet lover who lives in or near London there is a great experience coming to you. I am going to have a ‘Wagashi’ Japanese sweet Making Experience Workshop this month. Because it will be held in October, the theme of the sweet we are going to make is Halloween. I love making Jack-O’-Lanterns and Ghosts but haven’t made them in a workshop yet. It will be a great fun making these cute & spooky sweets together.

 

Wagashi Making Workshop in London (19th/Oct)

I have been using different venues for the last few workshops and this coming workshop will be also in a new place. However, it is going back to a little closer to central London this time and also it will be held daytime on Saturday, so this will be much easier for some people who really wanted to participate but couldn’t before.

October poster2

on: the 19th / October (Saturday), 11:30 – 13:30
at: The Havan (262 Kensington High Street, London W8 6ND)

The venue Havan is a new type of café which is located in the High Street Kensington area. It is an Ethical Lifestyle Boutique and Matcha Tea Bar. The shop owners are great Halloween lovers and I am very excited to have a Wagashi Workshop in the Halloween theme at their shop. As well as great thick and creamy Matcha tea and lovely Vegan food they have many interesting products. Come and join me in the workshop and you will probably find something interesting to take home with you from the shop.

[The tickets] for this workshop are available now from here (←click here to the Link). The class is limited to a small group of people so don’t miss out on this great opportunity! See you there then!

Wagashi Workshop in London in Summer

/ Mutsumi / 2 Comments

I have hosted several ‘Wagashi’ Japanese Sweet Making Workshops. They were mainly for adults and I had been thinking that it would be great if I could have a Workshop that people could participate with their children. In order to make this plan possible there were several issues to clear and the biggest one of them was that the event has to be held daytime. For solving the problem I thought it would be best if the event was held during the school holiday period. In case this idea happens, I have been considering several designs for sweets which are attractive and also simple enough for children to make but enjoyable for adults too. After going through many possibilities I finally picked three designs in the summer theme and set up a date and the venue to have a workshop on the 25th of July.

 

Wagashi Making Workshop (July/’19)

I had a ‘Wagashi’ Japanese Sweet Making Workshop in the Summer theme on the 25th of July and it ended well.

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