Tokyo Chandlers: Happy New Year

To start off the new year, we went with some of the senior couples to the Kichijoji chapel and watched the people in the ward there make Mochii or Mochiko the traditional way, and then we got to eat some of it. It was really interesting to see them make the mochii as they take hot cooked rice in a huge barrel and then they take wooden hammers and hammer it until it becomes a dough. It is hard work and lots of pounding for them to do that. Elder Chandler (Gary) helped and he said it was hard work. There was a lady who would keep moving the rice to where it needed to be in between strikes with the hammers. (She had a dangerous job!) Then they would form the dough into balls. The Japanese especially loved these mochii and they would put it with radish which tastes like turnips, or with Asugi beans loaded with a sugar syrup, or with fermented soy type beans which I heard tasted not so good so I didn’t try that. They also had some giant pots of soup with bean curd and vegetables and mostly chicken skin in the pot. Elder Gary really liked all of this food as he is very adventurous and I liked some of it.