Mochi Tsuki 1998

Mochi Tsuki 1998
	VBT member, Take Ishii, preparing the steaming box for the sweet rice.
After adding the rice to the box, Take will add it to the stack of boxes placed over the boiling water.
	Using a special tool designed by VBT member, Rodney Nishimoto, the cooked rice is taken to be pounded.
Care is used to carry the steaming hot rice.
	The hot rice is placed into the modern electric pounding machine.
The rice is tended by watchful eyes.
	The hot pounded rice is ready!
Great care is used to place the rice onto a tray. Prying it loose from the machine and lifting it high must be done swiftly - unless you have insulated hands.
	Sometimes it sticks!
Kneading the rice in a stone bowl using eucalyptus mallets is the first step in the traditional pounding method.
	Knead, knead and knead, until its ready to be pounded.
Everyone who can, participates in the pounding - some need help.
	Pounding with great care and brute strength.
The girls get their chance too!
	Rodney's latest invention - a foot controlled cutting machine.
Blanche Shigeoka & David Matsumoto are fascinated, that it works, but you have to keep up with the machine. The hot mochi is squeezed out to be cut into paddy size portions.
	VBT member, Satomi Schupp, helps her children form the mochi paddys.
VBT member, Terri Omori, teaches daughter Katie the proper way to do it.
	Terri's son, Kurtis, is having fun making his own baby mochi (Ko Mochi).
Sweetened bean (An) is placed into the paddys to form An mochi.
	After shaping, the mochi is spread out to cool, prior to packaging.
The mochi is packaged and taken home by an anxious customer.