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Traditional Japanese Mochi Pounding Event

Annual Mochi Pounding Event is here!
Come and celebrate the Japanese New Year with freshly made Mochi!

"Mochitsuki" (mochi-pounding) is one of the traditional activities of the new year in Japan. We eat Mochi to gain strength, good luck, good health and long life.

You are encouraged to try your hand at pounding the wet rice paste with a wooden mallet and mold it into Mochi!

What is Mochi?
Mochi is a traditional food for the Japanese New Year made of glutinous rice, pounded into paste and molded into shape by hand.

What is traditional Japanese Mochi pounding?
The rice is soaked in water overnight and cooked in traditional wooden steamers (Seiro). Then, the polished glutinous rice is pounded with wooden mallets (Kine) in a traditional mortar (Usu). It requires two people to work together - one pounding the Mochi while the other turning and wetting the Mochi with water to prevent it from sticking to the mallet. The Mochi is shaped by hand once the pounding process is complete. At this event, we will eat Mochi with soup (Zoni and Zenzai) and with various Japanese goodies such as red bean paste (Anko), shredded daikon (Daikon Oroshi), bean powder (Kinako) and fermented soy beans (Natto).