Mochitsuki

Every January OCG holds this  traditional New Year’s event, in which rice is pounded  to make omochi,  or rice cakes. Students have the opportunity to use the wooden mallet  (kine) to mash the steamed sweet rice in the traditional stone mortar  (usu).  Students then enjoy the fruits of their labor – eating mochi  covered with kinako (sweet soybean flour), or wrapped in nori and dipped  in soy sauce.

As we now do with all of our cultural  events, the teachers use the occasion to base some language lessons on  mochitsuki-related themes.  For instance, one year one of our older  classes compared regional differences in ozoni (mochi soup) and then  cooked and served different samples.

We have also included other cultural  events right after the mochitsuki ceremony.  In the past, we have had a  demonstration of taiko (Japanese drums), karate, and o-shūji (Japanese  brush calligraphy).