Making Mochi

Around new years, the Japanese will eat mochi for good luck. This past weekend, the Furusawas took me to a Mochi-Making at a local elementary school. Here is my host mother with the rice that will become the mochi.

Here is the propane-powered oven that cooks the rice until it is ready to be pounded.

Here is me and some of the Mochi-Makers waiting for the rice to cook. Extremely comfortable.

Here is the one of the hammers they use to pound the mochi into a soft and sticky pulp.

Usually two people pound the mochi simultaneously in rhythm, but here is just one man. The woman would occasionally add water during the up-swing. In this picture, it looks like he is about to hit her.

Here is a video of some dual-mochi-pounding.



Here is the Mochi after pounding. It is still very hot.

Here is a video of the Mochi removal.

I think this is brown sugar or some other kind of spice that they put on the mochi.

Here is my host mother and I testing some of the finished product, still warm.

Afterward, I played around with the kids. Someone got kicked in the head shortly after this photo was taken.