Mochi Day

Okay, Mom – here are the pictures!

This mochi-making event occurs every year in December at the pre-school. Many of the mothers come to help, and several fathers come to swing large mallets at gobs of innocent and unsuspecting rice. Unfortunately, I had to teach several classes that morning, so Aaron went instead and beat up some rice in between taking pictures.

As you can see from the pictures, the mochi rice, still somewhat grainy but very sticky, is placed into large, hallowed-out tree trunks. Considering the pounding that this rice will receive, it’s no wonder that they use tree trunks.

Mochi rice
Mochi rice 2
Stirring/turning

The men then whack away at the rice using these traditional mochi mallets. According to Aaron, this particular fellow pounded the rice, “like it had been talking bad about his momma.” That’s a direct quote from my husband. The men smack the rice while the brave women sitting next to the stump turn and stir.

Watch out!

Periodically they check the mochi to see if it has the correct consistency. Exactly how does one decide if rice is stretchy and gooey “enough”? Coming from a culture (in America) where “light and fluffy” rice is highly prized, this stretchy-gooey thing is still hard to comprehend.

Checking
Still checking

After the adults have had some time with the mochi rice, the kids, eagerly waiting in the background, are given a turn. Fortunately, they are not given the larger mallets, but instead wield child-sized versions. Here are some lovely mochi-pounding shots. Last year, Ridge and Holt were too new and nervous, but this year, they happily pounded away.

Holt
Ridge
Ridge 2
Holt 2
Ryuuya - do you think he's having fun?

Each child was then set up with a little mochi-making station. Here you can see Ridge and Holt, each with a place mat with their names written on them. Both boys can recognize their own name written in katakana (one of the three forms of Japanese writing. It’s typically used when writing foreign words). Several balls of the mochi “dough” and azuki bean paste have been placed on each mat. The kids then roll up little balls of mochi with the “an” (bean paste) inside.

Mochi making station

Here is the lunch that was prepared for the students. The bowl of soup is shoyou-based (soy sauce) soup with small balls of mochi in the bottom of it. The small snoopy that you see floating in the bowl is actually made from fish paste. They mince up fish and then form it into long tubes in various shapes and designs. You buy it at the store in the tubes and then slice it thin to put in soup or as an accent for someone’s bento (box lunch).

The group
Lunch - Ridge ate all his soup!