Aoto-sensei taught us how to make a plum wagashi. He gave us a ball of sweet bean paste with a piece of plum inside. We wrapped it up in green nerikiri (nerikiri is a mixture of white bean paste and steamed rice flour with food coloring) as you can see in the picture. 
He rolled it softly in his hands and made a ball.
After wrapping , it looks like this green ball. 
Next, he used a sharp stick like this and put the crease in the plum.
He put the stick in cinnamon and poked the end of the plum to make a stem hole.
Like this!!This wagashi was finished.
After making the plums, he taught us how to make hydrangea wagashi. Because this flower blooms in June and we went there on June 15th.
He put two colors of nerikiri together (white and purple) and pushed it half-way through a sieve.
He hit the sieve and dropped pieces of nerikiri on the table next to each student. 
He softly put a ball of sweet bean paste on the piles of nerikiri.
He gently picked up the ball of sweet bean paste and started to put left over nerikiri pieces on the ball with sharp chopsticks until it was covered completely - as you can see in the pictures below.
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The white and purple nerikiri pieces are meant to look like hydrangea petals.
After fixing the shape, finally, he put a leaf on the hydrangea wagashi and it was finished.
We really enjoyed making wagashi!
If you come to Matsue, why don't you learn how to make wagashi!
You'll certainly have a special time.
It'll cost you 1,500 yen per person and it takes about an hour.
Hi guys,I'm from Vietnam and I really love Wagashi. I'm learning Japanese and hope one day I can go to Japan to learn to become a professional wagashi maker. Keep up the good work!:D
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