The Updated Mochi Post

(The original pictures I uploaded to go with this post were corrupted; everything should work now.)

Every year for the last seven, my friend Akiko has held a mochi-pounding festival at her place in Waile'a. For six of those years I have helped out, getting out there at 5:30 to start the fire, and get the rice cooking. Then, the rice goes in this (heavy-ass!) stone basin, and people come up to pound the rice with wooden mallets. It's considered in Japanese tradtion to bring good luck for the new year. My main responsibility is turning the rice while others pound, and keeping that big stone basin clean. It ends up being a lot of hard work, and I'm wiped after about six hours of this. Fortnuately one of Akiko's guests was a massage therapist, and very generously and compassionately gave me a full body massage at the end of the day. This was the first year that I was able to put the traditional kazare mochi on my altar and that made it special.