Pounding it out

This weekend, the elementary schools celebrated Culture Day (Bunka Sai) by making mochi. Mochi is a rice cake made from soft rice that's pounded down into a sticky cake. Nowadays, people have mochi makers but this was a special occasion so we were able to watch the traditional process. They used wood burning pots to cook the rice and then the soft, hot rice is transferred to a big clay pot where it's pounded with heavy wooden hammers.



The hammering is pretty intense! Parents kept asking Scott and I to try it and I finally nudged Scott into doing it. He had fun but slightly broke one of the hammers! Everyone was breaking them though so it was no biggie.



The kids and their parents made a variety of mochi. Some were unfilled and colored pink and eaten with nori (dried seaweed) and soy sauce, some were filled with sweet red beans, and even filled with chocolate! The chocolate was a new treat and was quite delightful with the warm mochi melting the chocolate in the center. In the end though, the mochi making turned into a flour throwing contest. Kids were covering each other's faces with flour and Scott and I were victims as well. No one was safe! This kid in the photo probably got it the worst though. Ha!