Making of the Mochi in Kishiwada | The Mercer Family Adventures

Kana’s Dad (Hirotoshi) has a really good friend named Yaichi (Yai-chan for short). He invited us over to his house on Dec.30th 2004 to help make mochi.

The video above is the fruition of the mochi making extravaganza!

Mochi is a type of rice, made in a traditional way during the New Year’s Holidays.

The rice is cooked, dropped into a large stone or wooden bowl and then smashed repeatedly with a big wooden hammer which results in a very chewy, gummy rice. Some batches have small shrimp added which results in a red very salty mochi, while others have brown sugar and ginger to it. Some mochi are wrapped around red bean paste (almost like chocolate) making for a very sweet mochi!

It is really, really sticky, so much so, that it results in a few deaths each year of elderly folks who can’t chew it enough! I am not joking!

お正月を目前に控えた12月30日。私の父の長年の友人でとーってもお世話になっている池内さんのお家での恒例の餅つき。今年はクレイグも参加させてもらったので、その様子を撮影してみました。

餅とはもち米をついて作った食べ物で、新年によく食べられます。

炊き上がったもち米を大きな石/木臼に入れ、杵で何度も何度もつきます。小エビを加えた赤い餅や、黒砂糖としょうがを加えた餅なども作りました。餡を包んだお餅もあります。

餅はとてもねばねばした食べ物で、実際毎年何人かのお年寄りが、餅をのどに詰まらせて亡くなってしまうこともあるのです…。