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! Read more…