Mochitsuki

It was on the day Huzaifah turned 3 months old when I got to try my hand at making mochi. I thought I wouldn’t get a chance at it this year because normally mochitsuki is only held a few days before new year and I won’t be in Japan during those days this year.

Kawaguchi sensei (the only male sensei for Nihongo Ichi class, and my favorite sensei) made an announcement before the class started last Thursday. Class for 2nd period would ended at 11.30a.m. (instead of 12.10 p.m.) and everybody was invited to a mochitsuki session, organized by Waseda University Centre of Japanese Language, at Oyama Garden.

I almost jumped at hearing that. Only the day before I remember confessing to Honda sensei how much I would have loved to attend a mochitsuki and be given an opportunity to try it the pounding myself.

So, at 11.30 a.m., Arai sensei led the (mostly excited, although some had no idea what mochi is) Nihongo Ichi students to Oyama Garden. We were greeted by the sight of some sumo wrestlers pounding on mochi. (Sorry, no pics of Sumo wrestlers pounding on the mochi though) A long line was already formed at a makeshift tent – for guests to try out mochi and ozoni soup. They even served vegetarian ozoni soup. The mochi was served fresh and warm, as opposed to the room-temperatured ones easily found at most su-pa (supermarkets). Hot mochi, hot ozoni, traditional Japanese music blasted from some speakers, cloudless clear blue sky, not-too-cold weather – all in all made it a perfect day to be out socializing with students from the same and different Nihongo classes.



The best part was given an opportunity to try the pounding ourselves. Some students just posed for pictures. Some were given opportunity to mash the rice until the individual rice grains can no longer be seen (similar to nasi himpit texture) before beginning pounding. Some, like me, just went straight to the pounding part. No, we didn’t get to the shaping the mochi and covering it with red bean paste or powdered with sweet flour and peanut mixture, but even then, the pounding itself was interesting.



Using a medium-heavy kine (mallet), I took turn pounding on the rice with another girl standing opposite of me, listening carefully to “Yosho!” signs from the girl kneeling, in charge of turning and wetting the mochi in the usu (mortar). We wouldn’t want to pound on the girl’s hand by mistake, of course. It was fun aiming for the hardest pound in the middle of the mortar too. An exercise which reminded me of my field hockey training years ago, an outlet to let go of bottled up stresses and frustrations.

And so I pounded. Hard. Carefully aimed at the middle of the mortar. Never missed it even once.

Hard work. But the end result was a good, smooth-textured delicious mochi.

Hmmm… Oishii sou!