Every year, when April returns, I start feeling “it is Sakura, cherry blossom season.”　When the spring comes, I always think of the Sakura in Japan and at the Tidal basin in Washington D.C.

_{Sakura near Kumamoto Castle}.

_{Cherry blossom viewing at Kumamoto Castle.🌸}

_{Sakura at my parent’s house.🌸}

_{Sakura at the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C.}

_{Aww, how little my daughter was…♡}

_{With her grandma.💕}

About 112 years ago, the mayor of Tokyo, Yukio Ozaki gifted 3000 cherry tree seedings to the United States as a token of friendship between Japan and the U.S. (The first attempted sending of 2000 seedings had to be incinerated due to a pest issue.)

In return, the U.S. sent dogwood trees to Japan and they were planted in Setagaya ward.

Around this time last year, we were still in the U.S. and I had a chance to participate in Sakura Matsuri – Japanese Street Festival as a performer. The festival is held every year in the U.S. capital, Washington D.C.

_{(My friend let me borrow her beautiful Yukata as long as needed while I had events. ）}

Sakura Matsuri is held on Pennsylvania Avenue which is in front of the U.S. Capitol for two full days.

There are U.S. and Japanese flags all over the city to celebrate this spring festival. The festival is known as the largest Japanese festival in the United States and has over 40,000 visitor from all over the U.S. every year.

_{The above picture is when the Tamagawa Taiko group performed at the festival in 2017.}

I presented about the charm of Nerikiri Wagashi and after my presentation, I gave out 100 pieces of my spring-themed Nerikiri Wagashi to the audience.

You can see some of my recap of the Sakura Matsuri presentation here.

I was given about 30 minutes for my stage presentation. It was my first experience being solo on stage and talking about Japanese traditional sweets in English.

I feel a bit embarrassed when I look back and watch the videos of my stage presentation. But I remember that after my whole show was done, I felt like I did my absolute best. My heart was filled with gratitude for having such a rare opportunity to present about Japan’s traditional sweets in the U.S., and that a lot of people who were listening to my presentation enjoyed my Nerikiri Wagashi. I am just glad that people received Wagashi for the first time, even if for some people it might not be their favorite.

The reason why I was able to participate in the festival was because I got a message from the festival organizer about 4 months before the festival. She asked me if I’d be interested in presenting about Wagashi, traditional Japanese sweets at the event. I used to work at the organization for about 3 years until I left the job after I had my first daughter. But I’ve been still keeping in touch with her. When I first got the offer, I felt a bit nervous thinking that I will be on stage by myself and that I need to talk in front of a lot of people. But later I started to feel “I can do it, I want to try it!” so I replied to her and said I would love to join the event!

This is just my rule but when I feel nervous about something that I want to overcome, I practice at least 100 times. (It can be different kinds of things that are you feeling nervous about) I truly believe that if you practice 100 times, you will always improve no matter what. When I practiced my presentation at home, I imagined that many people would be watching me and listening t to my speech, hehe. I practiced my presentation every day after my children went to bed. My daughters and husband also helped by being my audience and MC after dinner some days. I felt so happy when my youngest started pretending to be the MC and said, “next is my mom’s show! She will talk about Wagashi!!”

During my presentation, I also demonstrated how to handcraft 3 different designs of Nerikiri Wagashi after my talk. For this part, I didn’t explain each step, like how each different color of sweet bean paste becomes 3 different shapes like the picture below. Instead, I introduced the name of each sweet after I finished making it. Traditionally, Nerikiri Wagashi has their own name based on their designs and hoping that the audience could enjoy thinking and imagining about the scenery they will enjoy during the spring.

In the above picture from left to right, the name of each sweet that I made are…

Sakura in Full Bloom

Petal in the Spring Breeze

Petals floating on the Tidal Basin

Looking back at my videos of the presentation, I notice that I was holding the traditional tool the wrong way – there is a certain way to use it… hehe and my hands were shaking a bit while I was making the sweets but when I saw my family in front of my stage and also many of my friends were energetically waving at me, I felt so relieved and my nervousness disappeared.

I still remember one of the children who was watching my stage said “It looks like a magic show!”, “It is a flower!” when I made Sakura-shaped Nerikiri Wagashi. My heart melted.

It has been 11 years since I left Japan and started living overseas. There have been many ups and downs. However, since re-encountering Wagashi after many years of not thinking about it, my life has changed so much in a positive way. Through Wagashi I have learned to be proud of who you are, having pride in your own identity, and living to the fullest with confidence wherever you go.

I also feel motivated when people like my Wagashi, hehe. I want to teach Japanese children who live overseas long-term just how beautiful the sweets are in our own country, and I want them to try making and tasting them together. I still need more time to think deeper about why I especially have strong feelings towards Wagashi.

I started my new IG post series called “Eigo de Wagashi: Wagashi in English,” which is about sharing how to say Wagashi-related words in English. I decided to start this series based on my experience having so much difficulty translating Wagashi words into English while I was making the presentation slides and also when I had Wagashi-making workshops in English. Also, I hope that my posts will help people feel encouraged to share their passion about Wagashi or talk about Wagashi to people from all over the world.cc

I want to connect with people from all over the world and share my passion for Wagashi, make people smile, and have fun experiences making Wagashi together. I have no doubts that the Sakura Matsuri made me keep going to learn and make Wagashi once again!

This is Nerikiri Wagsahi in the shape of dogwood flowers, which I learned from my Wagashi teacher, Hiromi-sensei.

My daughters have a hometown in Japan and America. After I made these Nerikiri Wagashi, we talked about how a long time before they were born, sakura and dogwood were exchanged as a token of friendship between the two countries.🌸💕I

Thank you for reading my blog.