Please come and experience the beauty of Japanese calligraphy.

In this workshop, you will first learn the basic skills to write a “Kanji”(Chinese character) with a traditional brush and ink… the correct posture, how to hold the brush, how to make a stroke, and etc. After that, you will pick your favorite “Kanji”(if you want to write your name in “Kanji”, we can help you), practice as much as you like on special calligraphy paper until you are ready create your masterpiece to take home.
For your masterpiece, you can select items from the different courses below:

・Fan (You can select from black or white/for black, you will use a gold or red ink)
・Shikishi (It is a special kind of Japanese card paper that is often used for painting, drawing and autographs)
・Black Paper (2 papers/You will use a gold or red ink)
・Hanging scroll
・Kite
・Calligraphy board
・Hagoita (It is a traditional Japanese badminton racket)

Please come and experience the traditional Japanese culture of the “Tea Ceremony”.

You can experience watching and participating in the actual tea ceremony. You will be learning the etiquette of the ceremony, and you will enjoy the Maccha green tea with traditional Japanese sweets. You will also experience making the tea by yourself.

You will receive a traditional paper, bamboo toothpicks and dried sweets as a souvenir.

※Other traditional Japanese sweets will be sold on the day.

“Furoshiki” is a square shaped cloth used in Japan to wrap items and carry them. Since it is a simple cloth, “Furoshiki” can be easily stored, is very light and can wrap many kinds of items in different shapes.

In this workshop, you will design your own textile pattern on this “Furoshiki” using various stamps in block printing style.
First, you make a stamp of your favorite shape. Then you will combine it with the other stamps and make an original pattern on the cloth. The ready-made various stamps you will be able to use are in shapes of the nature and activities in Hakuba, for example, flowers, mountains, animals, skiing, and etc. I hope you will be able to make a cloth that will represent your memory of your stay in Hakuba.

You can take home the stamp and the “Furoshiki” you have created.

Please come and enjoy making a cute “Sweets Deco”.
“Sweets Deco” is a clay craft originating from Japan that uses resin clay to create and decorate sweets (cakes, macarons, ice cream, fruits, etc.) to look like the real sweets.

In this workshop, you will create your original “Sweets Deco”.

The price is set for creating one “Sweets Deco”, so you can come and make your own, or children are welcome to create one together with an adult!

For this workshop, if you have more than 3 guests in your group that want to experience the workshop at the same time, booking is necessary. Otherwise, you do not need to book! Just come to Bears Cafe Echoland on Thursdays (10:30-14:00) and you will be able to experience creating your own “Sweets Deco”. It will approximately take 1 hour to make one.

Please come and experience the fragrance of the Japanese natural incense materials.

The incense materials used in this workshop are all from Japan and they have been selected by a “Kohji”(an incense specialist) of the natural incense specialty store near the Zenkoji temple in Nagano.

In this workshop, you will first create your original fragrance by selecting and combining the materials, and then you will put the incense into a ball or gourd shaped wooden case. After that, you will decorate the case by pasting the Japanese patterned cloths of your preference on to the surface of the case.

If you want to create extra souvenirs to take home, you can also make your original incense pouch for 2,000 yen each.

※Traditional Japanese Incense Dolls will also be sold on the day.

In this workshop, you can experience how to make healthy sushi rolls made with organic brown rice from a local farm, organic pure rice vinegar, and unrefined cane sugar.

Please come and learn from a professional chef with over 20 years of cooking experience about how to roll regular sushi rolls with seaweed on the outside and “Ura-maki Sushi” with rice on the outside.

After making the sushi rolls, you will enjoy your own sushi rolls for lunch.

The sushi rolls will be wrapping vegetables and Shinshu chicken.
※The ingredients can be adjusted according to your dietary restrictions and preferences. Please inquire.

The adult’s course includes two whole sushi rolls, and the child’s course includes one whole sushi roll (just the one with seaweed on the outside). Children are welcome to experience this workshop with an adult for free, if it is OK to experience the making process together and to share the food. When you cannot eat all the sushi rolls, you will be able to take them back to your accommodation with you.

Do you know “Takoyaki”?

“Takoyaki”, which literally translates to grilled octopus, refers to the savory dish of grilled balls of batter made with flour and eggs filled with octopus chunks and other ingredients like pickled ginger (“Beni Shoga”) and leftover fried tempura batter (“Tenkasu”). Each “Takoyaki” is approximately the size of a golf ball. It is one of the most famous menus from Osaka, Japan.

Please come and experience making “Takoyaki” with a local chef from a Japanese Izakaya in Omachi, who is originally from Osaka. He will be teaching you some “Osaka-ben”, Japanese with the Osaka area dialect too.

In this workshop, after experiencing making “Takoyaki”, you will enjoy them for lunch. You will get to explore the different types of toppings to go with the “Takoyaki”.
※The ingredients can be adjusted according to your dietary restrictions and preferences. Please inquire.

The adult’s course includes 20 balls, and the child’s course includes 10 balls. Children are welcome to experience this workshop with an adult for free, if it is OK to experience the making process together and to share the food. When you cannot eat all the “Takoyaki”, you will be able to take them back to your accommodation with you.

Please come and experience making rice balls (“Onigiri”) and egg rolls (“Tamagoyaki”)

In this workshop, a professional chef together with a rice farmer will introduce you to the wonders of Japanese rice. After learning how to make the rice balls, you will make 3 of your own with different ingredients and then, you will also learn how to make egg rolls with a special squared frying pan.

Once they are completed, you will enjoy them for lunch with delicious miso soup that will perfectly go with the rice balls and the egg roll. (The chef will demonstrate how to make delicious miso soup.)
※The ingredients can be adjusted according to your dietary restrictions and preferences. Please inquire.

The course includes 3 regular rice balls and 1 egg roll with miso-soup. Children are welcome to experience this workshop with an adult for free, if it is OK to experience the making process together and to share the food. When you cannot eat all the rice balls and egg roll, you will be able to take them back to your accommodation with you.