Mochitsuki (Mochi-making)

(Again, I forgot my camera so no pictures of mine. All pictures in this post are from the internet)

Yesterday, we went to a small camp-like place where we were to do mochitsuki. Mochitsuki is generally the traditional way to make mochi. At first, we thought that was all we were going to do, but it turns out there was more.

So, we ended up at the place for like 5 hours. There was us (not everyone came just a couple of us), plus 2 English teachers, and a bunch of Elementary school students.  The first thing we did was aisatsu (introductions) then the coordinators had the kids learn how to say Hello and Thank You in English, Chinese, and Korean (since there were Americans, Chinese, and Korean exchange students there). Then we had to play this aisatsu game where we had to talk to 5 people we don't know and greet each other. After that we got into groups of 4 where we had to learn about each other more. Everyone in my group likes sushi lol after that we played another game where we each got a paper with an animal and we had to act like that animal and find other people who had the same animal. Then we played yet another game. 2 animal groups were put together to form one group so that there were 3 big groups. In this game we had to run up to someone on the other side of the building and do rock paper scissors. If you win you run back and another team mate goes. If you fail you have to tell your teammates to "Come on!" and everyone has to run behind the guy and back. We had to do that so many times lol but we ended finishing first! After playing all these games we went outside (it was scary cold btw!)

usu

When we were outside we saw the log that's used to make mochi. I was wondering when we were going to make it. We first had a quick introduction and then we went straight to mochi making! So how it works is there is a log that had it's center hollowed to form a sort of bowl in the center. This is called an usu. One of the old ladies brought oover steaming cooked rice (which I believe is glutinous rice) and put it in the usu. One of the guys took a large mallet and started to smash the rice against the sides. As he was doing this the lady had a bowl of hot water and would dip her hands in it then brush her hands against the side of the usu where rice was sticking. They did this for a few minutes then  the guy started pounding the rice. What's amazing about this is that at the same time the guy was pounding the rice the old lady was continuously dipping her hand in the hot water than wetting the mochi and turning it as the guy was pounding. They were doing it pretty face so they had to be in rhythm with each other. After a few pounds the guy asked who wanted to pound the rice. Of course all the elementary boys were yelling yes and starting lining up behind him (so cute haha). The first few boys used the same mallet the guy was using which looked really heavy. They pounded the rice. They eventually switched out that mallet for a smaller one to our relief lol. After several pounds the rice turned into a mass of sticky mochi! It's really amazing seeing how rice suddenly turned into one giant ball of sticky stuff. We made 3 batches of this stuff. Of course, I had the chance to pound it, too! It's a lot harder than it looks. It was fun though. I wasn't going to do it, but people convinced me to. We ate the mochi with various stuff in which it was rolled in. There was azuki beans, kimchi, kinako, but my favorite was the maccha powder. So good!!!!!!!  We also had soup with our mochi which made a lot of us happy because it was cold outside.

kendama

After the mochi activity we pretty much had free time for nearly 2 hours. Some people played soccer while some played with the toys they had. They were all traditional Japanese toys. My favorite was the kendama. I played with that toy for a pretty long time. Not to sound cocky, but I was able to catch the ball on all 3 cups and even was able to get it on the spike! I'm pro ;D lol jk not really. But it was still cool that I was able to do it right since apparently it's not that easy. If you've never heard of kendama it's pretty much this toy that has 3 cups and a spike. There's a wooden (I think it's wooden) ball attached to a string that's attached to the toy. The ball has a hole where the spike is supposed to go through. You have to try and get the ball to land on one of the cups. You can only use one hand so you swing the ball and try to get it to land on one of those 4 places. I found getting the ball on the bottom cup the easiest. The spike is the hardest. I couldn't get it in until someone told me a trick to do it. After I was able to achieve all 4 I felt very accomplished lol I actually want to get one of these.

After free time we went back into the building where one person from each country (America, China, and Korea) taught the kids (as well as us) about their country then the kids would ask questions about it. I learned a few things. I didn't really pay attention most of the time, though >.< I kept thinking about how hungry I was lol

After that we headed back home.