The Mochi Guide

Last month, I attended two mochi-making events at nursery schools. Mochi is rice-paste made from pounding sticky rice with a wooden sledgehammer (kine). The rice is hammered in something that looks like a partially hollowed tree trunk (usu). Usually, several people take turns hammering with a continuous rhythm, while one person quickly readjusts the paste-ball between each drop of the hammer. Once the rice is all homogenized into one uniform ball, it’s divided into bite-sized mochi-balls. Via chopsticks, they are dunked into various flavors (like soybean powder). The mochi-balls are then in final form and ready to be eaten. The hammering is a full-body event if done well – abs, arms, legs, and back balanced with the hammer’s own momentum from gravity. If I am ever made into a video game character, I will likely request a mochi-hammer as my weapon. I loved it. Being the person who readjusts the paste-ball was also exciting. At the second event I attended, I played this role as well. I felt a need to focus. Momentary distraction or disharmony with the hammerer could lead to a brutal situation. Ironically, after spending a few hours making mochi, I found out I don’t like eating it. A lot of Japanese people do like it – it’s a pretty common food here.

-Nick

Photo guide:

Step 1: Watch and study

Step 2: Hammer the rice

Step 3: Make little mochi-balls

Step 4: Flavor the little mochi-balls at the chopstick-station

Step 5: Discretely escape the chopstick-station when your hand gets tired

(photo unavailable due to clandestine nature of its contents)

Step 6: Eat and avoid child cleanup duty

License to Terrify

One of the nursery schools invited me to participate in a special event last week called Setsubun. It’s a cultural event celebrated all over Japan. To celebrate, some people dress up as demons, and others throw beans at the demons. The point of throwing the beans at the demons is to make them run away so they can’t scare people – the whole event symbolizes warding away evil each year. I participated in the demon class. This class has the oldest kids in the school. We spent a week making paper-mache masks. I was meticulous with mine. The morning of the event, one of the teachers told me if the younger kids were crying, I did my job right. I was supposed to actually terrify them. The purpose of the event is to teach the kids to confront real fear and overcome it over the course of several years’ events. I liked the idea – teaching kids to deal with powerful emotions like that through actual experience seemed like a valuable lesson to me. All of the kids were showered in candy to reward them for their bravery at the end of the event. We (the demons) were given tinfoil machetes to top it all off – I thought it was a nice touch. Some kids responded better than others (see Emi’s nephew in the blue coat).

-Nick