Making Wagashi: 和菓子作り

This weekend, we finally had the event that I'd been waiting for for about a month!
Together with a group of both Japanese and international people, I went to Arashiyama for an afternoon of making wagashi and exploring.  In the past, I'd seen some videos of people making wagashi (which is a kind of Japanese confectionary, usually served with matcha tea, and are often representative of the current seasonal plants, fruits, or flowers). At that time I thought it seemed like a really interesting process, so I was really excited to have a chance to try it out for myself!

We met up around noon in Sannomiya to catch the train to Arashiyama (it takes about 80 minutes to get there).  While this event was planned through a language exchange group that I sometimes meet up with, I didn't know most of the people who attended. (There must have been just over 20 of us).  But, on the train ride there, I got to know a few more people, and made a few new friends!

When we got to Arashiyama, we made our way to the shop, got changed into our aprons, washed up and then started our new experience.  Apparently it was the first time for many of the Japanese people there as well.  Everything was prepared for us and so we just had to listen and follow along with what we were told to do.

The first ones we made were really simple. We just did a bit of rolling and then used a kind of cookie cutter to cut out flower shapes.

The next two were more complicated to make and involved more ingredients, but basically followed the same process.  We basically had to pat out the colored part into a larger circle, add in a white layer, and then put anko (bean paste) in the middle. and then work the outer parts closed around it before making it into flower shapes and adding garnishes.
We made a plum flower and a narcissus.  I personally think the plum looks nicer.  It was also a little bit more difficult to make because we had to try to make a little bit of the white show through the pink that we put it into before putting the anko in the middle.

Plum flower

Brown one is NOT chocolate...it's anko!

Narcissus

The final products (the smaller flowers I was talking about earlier are hidden on the right side)

The final wagashi that we made had a different process and was kind of interesting.  This time, we took a green and white rectangular piece and pushed it through a kind of sieve. Then we added the shredded pieces onto a ball of anko before adding the garnishes.  We were told that this one was supposed to represent the very beginning of spring when flowers are just starting to come out, and then we added some sugar on to the top of the flowers to look like there was still a little bit of snow.

When we were finished with that, they cleaned up all the tools we had been using and then brought us some matcha so that we could try one of the sweets that we had made. The other two were to take home.  While I don't usually like anko, I actually don't mind it in wagashi.  I don't know why, but it tastes different.  Maybe it's sweeter and less dry? Plus it's fine enough that there aren't any pieces of beans....Hmmm....  Anyway they are delicious!!

This is what they were meant to look like (except not the bottom left...we didn't do that one)

After we finished at the shop, we all gathered up together outside and then split into smaller groups to go do some exploring.  The group I was in went and got some food, and then visited a temple and walked through the bamboo forest before meeting up with a couple other groups at a cafe to warm up and wait for the other group to catch up with us.

There was much more talking together and getting to know others on the train ride back to Kobe (although some people left to go back in their own directions).  At the end when we arrived back around 8:30, some of them also decided to go out for dinner together as well. All in all, it was a really great day, and I'm really glad I was able to join!