Kyoto Kimono & Wagashi Making

How it runs

1. 1Nama-yatsuhashi class: mix the dough from scratch, shape three flavours — red bean, matcha and roasted chestnut — and whisk a bowl of matcha. Textbooks come in English and Traditional Chinese.
2. 2Nerikiri class: work with traditional tools to make three seasonal jo-namagashi, eat one with a bowl of usucha you whisk yourself, and box the rest to take away.
3. 3The same hall also teaches tofu making: soy milk, okara, soft oboro and firm momen tofu, finished as a pot of yudofu.

Good to know

• Where it is: Yatsuhashi-an & Shishu Yakata in Nishikyogoku, Ukyo-ku — west Kyoto, not Gion, so leave travel time if you are coming from a kimono walk in Higashiyama. It is about 5 minutes on foot from the Nishikyogoku (route 23) or Nishikyogoku Gozuka-cho (routes 32 and 80) city bus stops, or about 25 minutes' walk from Hankyu Nishikyogoku Station.
• Teaching is in Japanese; you get an English text, and staff help with translation apps and gestures.
• Nothing to bring, and the sweets you make go home with you the same day.
• Children can only take part together with a paying adult. A child below elementary-school age who needs help may bring one adult who just sits in; nobody else can come in only to watch.