Making Mochi

After a morning joint basketball practice with another Tokyo mini-basketball team, they treated us to a mochi party.

Traditional mochi making is an art. This is a wood burning stove that was built 30 years ago specifically to steam mochi rice.. I don't know how many bamboo baskets of mochi rice they steamed.

Then people took turns pounding the rice while the hostess turned the steaming hot mochi. She did a great job of not getting hit with the mallet!

Once pounded it went to the flavor table and was portioned out in small pieces into bowls of grated radish (daikon oroshi), kinako powder, sesame, soy sauce, sweet bean paste, and a new one for me--green onion and dried bonito flakes.
We all ate way too much!

Does this look like your image of Tokyo???