Mochi at Tachibana Elementary

Today Gordon and I got to experience mochi at Tachibana Elementary school. Mochi is a japanese rice cake that's made by pounding rice into a paste and then molding it (normally into small balls or dumpling shapes).

Gordon's last day at Tachibana was on Friday, November 25th. He's going to miss teaching the kids there. I got to go with him several times to watch him teach and the kids were always excited to see him.

Gordon with his students

Luckily, Gordon and I were invited to the mochi festival at Tachibana today, so Gordon got to see all of his students again. There were several kinds of mochi at the festival:

Regular/plain mochi.

Anko mochi (bean jam rice cake).

Kinako mochi (soybean flour rice cake).

Karami mochi (grated radish rice cake).

Zoni (rice cake in soup).

Unfortunately, we didn't come early enough to see the mochi being made, but we did get to eat it!

Students and their families sitting down to eat mochi in the gym at Tachibana.

Gordon eating zoni.

Gordon coming back after a second helping of zoni.

Gordon eating plain mochi.

Yummy soup.

Happy after a good meal of mochi.

Full and satisfied!