Welcome to our home page “Japanese sweets”!!

By Rina & Keiko

Do you know Japanese sweets? We made this web pages to let the people in the world know how beautiful Japanese sweets are.

They are called wagashi in Japanese and often made
to be sweet, using bean jam, rice cakes and sugar as ingredients. Some of them are candied. In particular, wagashi are served during the tea ceremony and they have flavors that will bring out the taste of the tea. Their color and shape are artistic and so beautiful, and then we can appreciate them visually as well.

We would also like to show you the recipe of how to make Japanese sweets. Maybe you will think you want to cook it to see this website! So let's cook Japanese wagashi and try to eat the sweets!

The Seasonal Japanese sweets

  Spring 

Names

Name: Utage

Utage means banquet and people often hold it in Spring. Especially in April, people like to have a party under the beautiful cherry blossoms.

Name: Sakura

"Sakura" means "cherry blossom" in Japanese.
It's the national flower on Japan, and loved by people as a symbol of Japan.
The color is white pink and so beautiful.

Name: Sanshoku-dango

Sanshoku means three colors and dango is a dumpling. This dumplings is also called Hanami-dango and Hanami means Flower-viewing in Japanese. When People go out to places like parks to enjoy the cherry blossoms in April, they enjoy the coming of spring and often eat damplings there.  They are very delicious !

Summer

	Name: "Ajisai", which is the name of the flower, hydrangea. It blooms in the rainy season in June.
	Name: "Mizube" This means "waterside" and it produces a cool atmosphere.  People often go swimming or bathing in the ocean, lakes and rivers in summer.  It makes us cool and interesting!!
	Name: "Iwa-simizu" This means clear water. This is made of agar.

    Autumn

Name: Kyo-arasi-yama

Kyo-arai  is the name of the mountain located in Kyoto.

Name: Momiji

Momiji means maple.
Maple Leaves change color to red and yellow in autumn.  
They are so beautiful and  Going to the hills and fields to see momiji is called "Momiji-hunting."

This picture shows Koyo.
In autumn, the leaves on most Japanese deciduous trees change color to reds and yelloes and coat the mountains in beautiful colors. The Japanese people have admired this as a beautiful scene in the same way as with spring time cherry blossoms. They call it momiji or koyo.  
The most famous place for viewing  momiji is Kyoto.

  
       Winter

Name:  Huku-Suzu

It means "happy bell"and made of bean jam.  It is very sweet.

Name:  Hatsu-Ume

Hatsu means new year and Ume means plums.  The color of this flower is Pink and it blooms in March. In Japan, pine, bamboo, and plum trees are taken as good luck and they are used for New Year's decorations.  

This picture shows Iiyama Snow Festival.
Iiyama has a lot of snow every year.
It is very wonderful and interesting!!
This snow icon is called Yukinko.