Private Mochi Sweets Making Class in Setagaya (Tokyo)

Meet Sakura, a certified wagashi instructor eager to welcome you to her home for this sweets-making class, flanked by helpful assistant Choco (her adorable toy poodle dog). Wagashi (traditional Japanese sweets) are not just a tea time treat but an art form made with seasonal ingredients and motifs, achieved by carefully shaping each piece by hand. During this class, you’ll learn to make two wagashi with pounded mochi rice: hanami dango (three colorful mochi balls on a skewer) and strawberry daifuku (a soft mochi filled with a juicy strawberry). As you'll soon discover, there's more to mochi than sticky rice dough! Families and children enjoy strawberry daifuku and hanami dango during festivals, for instance, so these treats bring memories of fun times. After being welcomed into the host’s home and receiving a brief walkthrough of the experience, you'll watch a demonstration of each step before making mochi. Once your treats are ready, you will style and plate them, take photos, and enjoy tasting them at the host’s tatami tea room. Experience flow: -Arrive at the venue and greet Sakura, your instructor -Sakura will introduce the recipes and do a demonstration -Following her guidance, make two pieces of strawberry daifuku and two skewers of hanami dango -Take photos and dig into your delicious treats! This experience is in Sangenjaya, a former teahouse area that retains a retro flair with vintage stores, long-standing izakaya bars, and a traditional shotengai shopping street. Sangenjaya is in Setagaya, a verdant residential ward with easy access from Shibuya.