Further to my scone 'masterclass' at the local Junior High School, I was touched to receive this book of thank you messages from the students and their teachers.

  I really wasn't expecting anything like this, so it was all the more surprising! Thank you class.

  If you go to the schools website Ushigome Daini Junior High School, there are a few pictures taken while we were making the scones.

 Towards the end of last year, the home economics teacher at my children's Junior High school asked if we, as owners of The Three Little Pigs, would be willing to lead a cooking class. Naturally we said yes.

 For the class we decided that scones would tick all the right boxes; relatively simple, short preparation & cooking time, and classically British!

 So it was that I found myself on Monday afternoon, in the local Junior High School, leading a class of fourteen first and second graders in the basics of preparing scones.

 Needless to say, a lot of fun was had...flour up to their elbows, hands covered in sticky scone dough, and original scone art!

 Despite a small problem with trying to use multiple ovens and tripping the breaker, the scones came out great.

 The teacher had even readied a choice of strawberry or apricot jam, clotted cream and cups of tea; So the students were able to create their own taste of Britain 'afternoon tea' experience.

 Sorry no pictures of the actual class...didn't want to take my phone out...school rules etc. but I did prepare a recipe sheet for the students to take home.

 The class is one of a series of classes she is hoping to organise, showcasing food from around the globe and linked to the forthcoming 2020 Tokyo Olympics. 

 NEW! After watching Paddington, the movie, our muffin lady was determined to make something using marmalade.

 Voila! Chocolate chip and marmalade muffins. Delicious.

 Frozen pipes were something I thought we'd left behind in the 1970s, along with tinned potatoes, cheese fondues and Babycham.

 So it was a bit of a shock to turn yesterday at The Three Little Pigs and discover we had no water!

 Facing the prospect on not opening (try running a cafe with no water) I turned to google. A bit of pipe and stop-cock checking located the likely culprit as being the section of pipe around the water meter.

 With visions of bursting what in effect was a water main, and flooding Okubo-dori, I tenatively applied the hair-dryer's heat to the area around the pipe. After a minute or two of seemingly futile heating, there was the sound of running water in the kitchen.

 Who would have thought such a simple solution could work? Not me.

 Now I'm keeping a hair-dryer in the cafe as part of my emergency toolbox!