Mochi-tsuki and Christmas

Happy New Year, everyone! It's been a little while since we've posted anything new and we have been very busy these past few weeks preparing for and celebrating Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Years. Actually, we didn't do much to celebrate the transition from 2006 to 2007. All of us were asleep before midnight and we woke early, compliments of Josh, on January 1. But we were able to participate in a very old Japanese tradition, called mochi-tsuki, to help prepare for the New Year.

Our friends, the Kakimoto family, invited us along with them on December 24 (Christmas Eve) to a Mochi-tsuki at the home of their friends in Hayama, on the other side of the Miura Peninsula. Mochi-tsuki involves the pounding of a special type of Japanese sticky rice to make mochi (a rice treat). Mochi is the traditional New Years treat here in Japan, and the mochi-tsuki is usually performed during the week before New Years to prepare the wonderful treat for the New Years celebration.

To make mochi, the sticky rice is steamed and placed into a large wooden usu (large wooden bowl), where it is pounded repetitively with a kine (large and heavy wooden hammer) until it becomes a big ball of dough-like paste. Then, the mochi is separated into smaller portions and rolled into balls. Finally, flavoring is added, using soy, natto, amongst other things. You can read more about mochi-tsuki by clicking this link.

We had a lot of fun at the mochi-tsuki. I was offered and accepted the opportunity to take a whack at the mochi with the kine hammer. After watching some of the other guys hit it, I figured it would be pretty easy. But as it turns out, it was more difficult than I thought. Also, I think I was paranoid about missing the usu bowl and possibly accidentally hitting the woman who was next to it keeping the mochi wet to keep it from sticking. So out of the 5-6 hits, I only really let loose and put my full weight into one of them. Nicki helped some of the other women shape the mochi balls once the pounding was done. We even took a walk over to the terraced rice paddy where the rice had recently been harvested. Taking advantage of the empty wet fields, the kids went a bit wild making mud mochi. By the end of the walk, they were all pretty much covered from head to foot in mud.

When we returned home from the mochi-tsuki, we began preparing for Santa. We hung up our stockings and put out some homemade cookies for Santa. Then we all went to sleep, while visions of sugarplums danced in our heads. When we woke up on Christmas morning, we found that Santa had indeed stopped by, so we graciously opened up his offerings and had a wondeful Christmas morning. That afternoon, we invited some friends over to share in the festivities and a Christmas dinner. Nicki prepared prime rib, Mike deep fried a turkey, and our friends all contributed with other treats from their typical Christmas traditional stash. All in all, it was a great Christmas celebration in this Buddhist land that we call home.

Our stash of pictures are up in our Gallery, dated 01/02/2007. Enjoy!