Jan. 7 - Our neighbor just behind the American Embassy, Reverend Murase of the Yosenji Temple, very kindly invited me to meet his family and friends as they pounded homemade rice cake, called "mochi," in his temple garden. When I arrived at 11 a.m., a group of men were already pounding the first batch in a large wooden mortar. An even larger group of women were steaming the glutenous rice and preparing a delicious soup of chicken and vegetables in a small kitchen.

When he invited me to try my hand at pounding the mochi, Reverend Murase advised me that the mochi one makes oneself tastes the best. But pounding the rice was much more difficult than I thought. This rice was so sticky that it was difficult to extract the pestle from the large glob of pounded rice. Despite the cold winter weather, I quickly became very warm. Nonetheless, Rev. Murase and his friends cheered me on, so I completed my turn.

After handing the pestle over to someone else, I spoke to Rev Murase's wife. She told me they started this family tradition of pounding rice over 20 years ago when their daughters were in nursery school. That explained the factory-like precision of the family production. No sooner was one batch of mochi finished than the mortar would be cleaned, a new batch of sticky rice poured inside, and the pounding begun again. Meanwhile in the kitchen, a large group of women fashioned the mochi into small balls to put in soup, or in squares to grill with soy sauce and dried seaweed.

Mrs. Murase gave me a steaming bowl of "ozoni" soup to eat. Reverend Murase poured me a glass of wonderful dry sake from Niigata Prefecture. He was correct - the mochi one makes oneself really is the most delicious!

Until next time,

Jim