Scones, organic veggies and busy Playgroup days...

Maria has been spoiling us for two weeks in a row with her delicious home-made scones. Not a crumb was left. Everyone asked for it and so here it is. The closely guarded secret family recipe:) Bring along your samples to Playgroup any morning - home-made treats, sweet or savoury - are ALWAYS welcome!

And Naoko treated us as well today to home-grown organic vegetables. Supermarket-bought veggies here are always so fake-looking. It seems at times they have been scrubbed and polished to the point that they look like plastic toys. So this morning, it was really refreshing to see some earthy soil-encrusted carrots and potatoes. I'm sure they were all heartily devoured at dinner tables around Komaba this evening. Thank you Naoko:)

A very big welcome to Nobuko and Misa Barnes, as well as Madoka and little Daichi who joined us this morning. I hope you'll come back and join the fun next week.

You wouldn't believe how many email inquiries I've received about Playgroup this month. I think the article in Tokyo Family magazine might have something to do with it. Or indeed the fact that if you do a Google search using the keywords "Tokyo" or "Komaba" and "Playgroup", Komaba International Playgroup comes up. Whatever the reason, it's great! We have lots of new Mums and kids joining the fun. I know many of you are going back to work in the Springtime, early April when the hoikuen starts its new 'school year'. In the meanwhile, it's lovely to see so many new faces and to see that Playgroup is indeed living up to its original aim: providing a meeting place for Mums in the area, as well the kids.

Remember no Playgroup on Wednesday - so see you next week, Monday 1st March for Baby Sign Language:)

See you soon :)

Maria's Scones Recipe

Ingredients:

• 450g self-raising flour
• pinch of baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 50g caster sugar
• 110g unsalted butter (diced)
• 1 egg lightly beaten
• 50ml double cream
• 200ml milk
• 1 egg beaten with 1 tblsp water for glazing
  

Method:

• Sift slour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.
• Stir in the sugar.
• Using your fingertips, rub in the butter until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.
• Add egg, cream and enough milk to moisten.
• Mix well until it is a soft doughy texture.
• Gather the dough in a ball and roll out onto a floured surface.
• With a rolling pin, roll to 2.5cm thick and cut into with a round cutter.
• Place on a greased baking sheet and glaze with the egg/water mix.
• Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees for about 15-20 minutes (or until golden brown)
• Serve warm with butter, jam and fresh whipped cream and a cup of hot tea :)

The Tooth Fairy & Billy the Bear :)

We had a full house Wednesday morning with lots of new Mums and kids joining in the fun.

It's SO cold in Tokyo these days we had to sing and dance and shake ourselves a lot more than usual. But between our old friend Billy the Bear and and old favourite tune of Heads Shoulders Knees and Toes, we were well warmed up by snacktime, when yet again our kids showed us how to devour ten senbei at a time:)

A very big welcome to Elizabeth and her girls Sophie and Emily, who are adding to our reputation of "twin capital of Tokyo"! Also Akemi Ishida and her little boy. We hope you'll come back to play again:)

Coffee time conversation topics are always fun, especially when we discover new things about various cultural practises relating to children around the world. My Cian just lost his first tooth and was delighted to learn about an Irish tradition of the 'tooth fairy', who visits little kids and swaps their lost tooth for a coin or a treat of some sort. (Cian got a very cool shaped Hong Kong dollar:)) In France they say a little mouse visits. Our Playgroup Mums told us the Japanese equivalent. There is no fairy. And surprisingly for me, no oni involved. Instead, in Japan when a child loses a bottom tooth, the tooth is hidden under the floorboards of the house. If they lose a top tooth, then the tooth is thrown up over the roof of the house! Most of our Playgroup kids don't even have all their baby teeth yet though, so it'll be a while before we see our Mums out flinging dentures over their rooftops in Komaba.

Remember no Playgroup next wednesday 24th:)

Monday 1st of March, a great treat in store with SIGN LANGUAGE FOR KIDS, taught by an American teacher and mother of three, Lori Ikawa, living in Naka-Meguro:)

Take care and stay warm!

Rainy days make GREAT Playgroup days!

On such a miserable grey winter's morning, it was great to see so many of you brave the elements and come to sing our silly songs and dance our crazy dances:) There was little else we could have done in this awful weather, eh?

We had lots of new faces today too. A very big welcome to Mariko and little Yuki kun, as well as Megumi and Nina chan, who joined us today from Ikejiri. We hope you'll make it back next week:) And Andrew's big brother Jamie (age four and a half) who was on mid-term from British School, joined the fun and found a new friend, Joe.

Some of this morning's highlights included Yukako's funny "Pan song" - we'll have to get you to do that one again! And of course, the eagerly awaited, home-made Kamishibai. Eric Carle's Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you see? went down a treat. The chief "colourers" were Cian, Sophie and Kate, so they'll be delighted that the Playgroup kids liked their work:)

And finally, here are the dates that I;ll have to cancel Playgroup. My kids 'social calendars' are fast filling up and so I'm trying to juggle all their events!

Wednesday February 24th - NO PLAYGROUP (Komaba Yochien's otanjokai for Sophie & Kate)

Wednesday 3rd March - NO PLAYGROUP! (Cian's French School holidays)

Wednesday 10 March - NO PLAYGROUP! (Cian's French School - more holidays!)

Monday 22nd March - NO PLAYGROUP! (Public holiday - I'm going back to visit Hokkaido!)

See you all soon, mata ne;)

MAGICAL MISO!!

Playgroup took a cullinary twist this morning as Yukako treated us to a MISO DEMONSTRATION. We were truly spoilt as she had done all the hard work at home. Beans had been washed, soaked boiled and mashed. All we had to do was add salt, komekoji and mix mix mix. Then for some dango shaped balls of the miso mix - it was easy to see we had been practising in the sandbox with our kids:) But the most fun part was the 'throwing' of the miso-dangos into the container. After the mixture was all 'flung' iinto place and patted down, a small layer of salt capped it off. And with much ceremony, a pretty ribbon was tied around the tubberware container and it was placed in its cold dark subterranean home in our secret kitchen cupboards. Oh! how we are looking forward to seeing it next month to mix in the salt and then 'bury' it again until summertime. We all thought a 'Summertime Miso Party' sounded like a great idea to celebrate the wonderful endeavours of Yukako. Hontoni otsukaresamadeshita! Arigatougozaimashita:)

After our chef departed, we went back to our Valentine Craft Photo frames. Rie proved her artistry again and put us all to shame with her beautiful creation.

Meanwhile the kids were being SOOOO good. No-one whined. No-one cried. We weren't paying them ANY attention but they were good as gold! Apparently this is the trick - ignore them!! Jyoji decorated his head with some sparkly pearls, Daniel was besotted as ever with little Lui, Fumiko tried snacking on the miso-mix and Koki threw a few cups around just to remind us he was there.

All in all, an action packed, interesting, educational and fun morning for all.

See you next week:)

Valentine's Day - little artists :)

Our little Playgroup artists went to town today with their photo frame decorations. I'm sure the Dads will LOVE their photo frames, which were stuck and coloured and decorated this morning with much affection:) Today's 'best photo moment' is a hard call. Asahi kun decorated his forehead with cute heart-shaped stickers while Andrew scribbled all over his face.....

A very big welcome to Yoko Kitamura and Hitomi chan who joined us today. I hope you'll make it back next week.

See you all next week for more fun and games!

Komaba Yochien Kids Choir!

This morning we were treated to a rare visit by some of Komaba Yochien's Momo Gumi kids:) Yochien had a day off today and so Playgroup had the pleasure of welcoming Kasumi chan (Koki's big sister) and Miu chan, as well as Sophie and Kate. The girls 'taught' us two great new songs for our repetoire. Okikunatte naninaru and the Obake song. We also learned that when four little four year-old girls get together, they generate a lot of giggles, play with ALL the pink toys, love ALL the Purekia cards and might fight over pink fluffy high-heeled princess slippers.

A very big welcome to Sandrine and Benjamin who joined us from Hiroo today. Benjamin was being very camera-shy, but I got a nice shot of him in the end:)

Thanks to Yumino and Yukako too for writing down the words of the songs Oni no pantsu and Basu ni notte. I'll eventually get around to making some cool posters for these songs:)

And for those of you who missed our plots and plans for next week, Yukako has kindly offered to do a Miso demonstration during next Wednesday's Playgroup. Surpassing herself on her New Year's Resolution to make 4kg of miso this year, she has already made 8kg of the stuff! Otsukaresamadeshita. I'm really looking forward to seeing how little white beans get turned into the much-loved miso-shiro.

See you all at Playgroup next week for a Valentine themed craft day and now, a Miso Demo..... fun fun fun:)

Setsubun Playgroup

Setsubun might well be the official beginning of Springtime, but this morning it felt very wintry indeed. We had to dance about far more than usual to keep warm!

After our usual leaping about and name your favourite song introduction, we indulged in the funny Japanese tradition of Setsubun's mamemaki. Beans are thrown to represent the chasing away of evil spirits. Our Playgroup kids might be young, but without any hints or direction from the Mums, they quickly copped on to the aim of the game. As the mame and peanuts were scattered about all the little folk were soon throwing themselves about shamelessly chasing nuts and beans about the tatami room. I think they were meant to eat one bean per year of their age - not one kilo though, right??!!

Anyway thanks to Reiko for the excellent rendition of Oni no pantsu.... tsuyo-zo tsuyo-zo. What are the rest of the words...... hyaku nen de yowarenai yo???

And here's the link to the magazine article about our Playgroup. I'll have copies for everyone next week! www.tokyofamilies.com/sections/entry.php?id=413

Maybe see you in the park to make snowmen ;)

Stay warm....