Making Mochi

This morning I went on a walk with my host family and their dog, Momo (peach), to the bread shop. Every Sunday they go buy sweet bread as a special breakfast treat. The bread shop was similar to an American bakery, except the food is much healthier. On our way back we stopped to see a temple and a shrine. We ate the bread with soup and cabbage/seaweed salad.

Next, we went to another elementary school in the town. It is 115 years old! They were having an annual rice pounding festival. It was very fun! There were many portable kilns that children kept burning by chopping kindling. The rice is boiled for one hour and then moved to a large container where two people mash it. The final step is to move the rice to another large container and pound it with a large mallet. It is very hard work! When you are finished, you have made a rice paste that you can use in many different recipes - it's called mochi.

Another member of my group was at the rice festival with his host family. Both of us met the principal and vice principal of the school. They gave us a tour. It was wonderful!
After our time at the elementary school, I went shopping with Yuko. I found a few things I had been looking for and enjoyed seeing the shops decorated for the holidays. We had sushi for lunch at a place where the sushi circles the restaurant on a conveyor belt. If you see something you like, you take it. They charge you based on the number of plates you eat.
When my host family took me back to the hotel we decided to have tea and ice cream at the Japanese restaurant. It was hard to say goodbye to them. They were very kind to me. I hope we will be able to stay in touch.