Day 4 – Wagashi

Up at 4 a.m. – the good news is wakening two hours later than yesterday, the bad news is that I didn’t get back to sleep… Croissant 10/10 today, as good a one as I’ve had since Las Vegas Pastry School.

It is raining out and cooler, so a good day to be going to a class. A leisurely start after a cup of real coffee at a shop around the corner (vs. the instant Nescafé) fuelled me heading out in the wet towards Hikifune, to the Ichigo Ichei Wagashi school (someone’s private kitchen, much like the Chocolate Pedaller!). The metro was a bit confusing out here, changing to a different line though the train was the same, and unbeknownst to me it changed to an express train and not a local train so we flew by my stop and past another 4 before I could get out and reverse direction on a local train. At that point it was marked “express” or “local”, but I guess one is supposed to get off the original train, check the signboard and then get back on again if it’s a local train?? Quite confusing 🤷‍♀️. The apt. building was easy to find though so I still made it on time – always expect to get a bit lost at some point, so leave lots of extra time getting places.

The teacher, Michiko, was quite lovely – it turned out her two children were at home during the class although I didn’t hear a peep. One was apparently studying for an important exam, and the other drawing anime! The class started with an explanation of Wagashi creations, and their importance in Japanese culture; each of the types we made, 3 colour dango, daikufu and nerikeri are made for different festivals. Each of the colours in the dango represent different things; green for health (mugwort colours it), white for purity, and pink for the coming of spring (coloured with sakura, from cherry blossoms). Daifuku are a type of moshi made with seasonal fruits (and other materials such as chestnuts) and most often strawberries, but we used pineapple today as strawberries are not in season. The nerikiri are made in patterns that change with the season – these were really an art form.

The bases of wagashi are glutinous rice flour, white bean paste (white kidney beans) and adzuki bean paste (lovely flavour – I told Michiko that I use this in my vegetarian haggis recipe! and she was interested to learn about haggis….).

Michiko at start of class

Dango is quite sticky and interesting to work with; the rice flour is made into balls and then boiled and cooled in cold water.

Definitely better tasting with black sesame and sugar sprinkled on it, but alternatively it can be served as a savory with soy sauce/sake mix brushed on or dipped in.

The daifuku was a bit harder – we used two different techiques and my second one came out looking like a drunken volcano with the pineapple peeking out as you can see above. It’s quite sticky to work with, and this dough is microwaved twice before molding.

And the nerikiri was quite tricky – a real art form. When we made the leaves, we used two different colours of paste, yellow and red to represent autumn colours, and put a realistic notch on the bottom to represent the insects’ influence (a perfect weevil notch!). Ladybugs go on spring flowers, apparently and are very tricky as they are so small…

Interesting to see the difference between the pro and the amateur.

Michiko’s final product:

and my final tray: that volcano was supposed to be round LOL

We finished by learning how to properly make matcha tea (with a whisk to create foam) and all was packed up to go back out into the rain. Lots of fun! I am hoping Fugiya store in Vancouver carries most of the ingredients as I’d like to try some more. I suspect Debbie would be great at the nerikiri with her artistic talents – it truly is an art form.

Managed to miss my subway stop on the way home as well…. reversed and exited with a group of French folk who were looking for the Ginza line and were quite confused as you have to go above ground and walk a bit to find it. As I was going the same way we joined forces and had a nice exchange in both English and French walking between stations. There are a LOT of French tourists around, and lots of Aussies and Brits as well – some Americans, but fewer than I’d expected. Italians, Germans, Koreans and Canadians make up the next most common species I’ve encountered.

Headed for a lunch of Okonomiyaki near Asakusa, in a restaurant that was closed last year as it had no ac and it gets far too hot with the grills on – even today it was toasty, but really delicious. Finding sitting in the traditional Japanese position at a low table not so great with bad knees LOL, nor with self-service water to drink necessitating getting up intermittently! An Australian group next to me were lucky enough to land a bench so the daughter passed her parents’ food up to them… they were as creaky as me. A quick trip back to Kitchen town to pick up some small things was completed before it started to rain more heavily again so the hood went up and I scuttled for cover back to the hotel.

It’s lovely to see signs in the hot baths “please pick out leaves if you see them and assist insects in getting out of the water”. The heat is certainly appreciated for those aged joints…

Tomorrow morning will see a pack up and shift to another hotel in Shingawa, further south, and joining the cycle tour group. These first few days have flown by. Research shows there’s lots to do in Shingawa and look forward to exploring another new neighbourhood after dropping off the luggage which is expanding daily….