Gingerbread House

I was successful in my search for a gingerbread house.  I asked around and was told that I could find them at IKEA and Muji.  IKEA is the Scandinavian store we all know and most of us love.  When someone is looking for inexpensive furniture in Japan they head to one of two stores: IKEA or Nitori.  Nitori is Japan's version of IKEA with Japanese traditions (like kotatsu) and measurements (like skinny kitchen cabinets to fit in tiny kitchens).  Muji sells clothes, homewares, stationary, and more.  Everything in Muji is minimalistic and does not have any branding.  I really like Muji because it is so different than most stores.  Muji is not cheap, but everything is classic and should last a long time. 

There is a Muji in our local shopping center, so I decided to try there first.  Success!  They had a simple little kit that included the pieces to build a house, the icing/glue, and a candy Santa.  They also sold a kit of 24 different tiny packages of candy.  All in all, I spent just over ¥2000 ($18), which is more than I would normal spend on such an endeavor, but you do what you can do.  Also, the train fares would quickly add up if I wanted to search for a cheaper option, which would totally negate the purpose of the search.

After making my son wait for a few days, I decided to break it open today.  He had swimming lessons in the afternoon, but otherwise didn't have any plans.  I grabbed the powdered icing packet and mixed it with water.  I got it a bit thinner than I should have, which made house building difficult.  We glued the walls together and then sat there for quite some time holding it so it wouldn't collapse.  After a good 10 minutes, I glued the chimney pieces together and then got started on the roof.  I held those roof pieces on for what seemed like eternity, but was probably only 15 minutes.  By this point, my son was so excited to get started.  I had to keep distracting him with other tasks so we could let the house glue dry.  I noticed that the walls were starting to lean in, but I just had to remind myself that this isn't about being perfect, it is just about having fun. 

I then had my son help me with some tasks in the kitchen to keep his mind off the drying house.  After 30 minutes, it was time to decorate!

There wasn't a ton of icing for gluing candy all over and it was still pretty runny.  So, I did the icing and my son did the application of candy.  He quickly started sticking things here and there, smiling the whole time.  He loves to decorate gingerbread houses (as well as participate in pretty much any cooking project), so he was full of joy. 

It was a nice activity that made us think of loved ones back home.  We miss our annual traditions very much, but this was fun way to still feel connected.  It was worth the search.