A Japanese toy production company called Kukkia creates beautiful, wooden simplistic toys that leave a lot to children’s imagination. They make the parents too wish for a bit of play time.

Kukkia means ‘to bloom’ or ‘flowers’ in Finnish and ‘kuki’ is stem in Japanese. Their concept is to get kids to use their toys and their imaginations to create, change and re-invent how to play.

Stela loves to cook, bake and all that domestic stuff. I don’t know who she gets it from but there it is. So, we do it often – make muffins or cupcakes, the easy things. But when I am not up to it, she also has an extensive collection of her very own dishes, pots, pans, plastic and wooden fruits and veggies. This is something we do a lot – organize dinners and tea parties.

My little chef loved her sushi set and she really enjoys playing with it. And I do too, because the way I see it, it’s not just a great toy, simple yet with so much attention to make it true to the detail.

It’s also a great learning prop.

I was happy to teach her about making sushi rolls, pretend to eat them (by the end of our little game, I was dying for some real sushi though).

I am all up for toys being educational but in a fun not forcing it way. With this set they have nailed it. We are learning, discovering something new, while spending an afternoon indoors, just playing.

Times have truly changed. I didn’t even know sushi existed till I was seventeen, while my kid is playing with it at the age of three. The world is truly getting smaller.

More on Kukkia: http://kukkia.co.jp/english/.