Local Happenings With a Lot of Tradition

Friday night we were invited along to  view a practice session of a local taiko group.  Taiko is the name of the traditional Japanese drums and Junko, a local Japanese lady who had us around for a lovely dinner last Sunday, is a member.  We met Junko through Mena,  friend of all visiting yachties.  She picked us up and we arrived at their practice hall - a large room with a stage and packed with drums in an underground room, for obvious reasons.  

Needless to say it was very loud and noisy but a lot of fun.  Of course, it looked easier than it really is and Pam found that when our little group got up to have a go that the concentration involved in keeping the rhythm took over from relaxing and going with it.

More local happenings on Sunday when the local yacht clubs got together to make mochi, a traditonal rice cake made for the new year celebrations.  In this case, 30 kg of glutinous rice had been soaked overnight and, in batche,s was wrapped in cloth and placed in a steamer to cook for 20-25 minutes.

The gluey mass was then plopped into a large morter and pounded with large wooden hammers until it formed into a smooth dough

Pam gets into the spirit!

Then, it was inside where balls of red bean paste were waiting to be moulded into the middle of a piece of the dough to form the mochi. 

It is eaten as a sweet on New Year's Day or else used as an offering in a shrine.  Some are left plain to be added to miso soup.  This one didn't last that long but it certainly had the approval of this little one!