The Happenings of Me

To those of you who don't know what mochi is, let me put it like this: Mochi, though it sounds alot like tai-chi, is much more deadly. How many times have you heard of someone who died from anything to do with tai-chi? Probably never. That's the right answer. Mochi, on the other hand... mochi can, and will kill you. Every year, people die from mochi.

Now you might be thinking, "Where can I learn?!? Billy Perkins has been picking on me at school and I want to kick some ass with this thing of awesomeness called mo-chi..."

Well, sorry kids. It's true that mochi does kill people every year but unfortunately, it is not some sort of sweet martial arts. Actually, it's not so unfortunate, because it is delicious. It's a sort of dough... maybe sort of a cake, made out of pounded rice and can be served in lots of different ways. And when I say lots, I mean it. Listen to an explanation here:
Oh, and don't believe me that it kills? Just search 'mochi kills' or something in google, you'll be sure to find plenty of articles. It gets stuck in your throat if you take too much of it at once... so be careful! Anyway, here's a few videos of the process of making mochi I took at the party I went to today. The quality is kinda (really) bad, but what can you expect from a 4 year old digital camera? Hope you guys enjoy it. FIRST the rice is steamed, but that wasn't a very exciting video, as you can imagine, so I decided not to upload it. Next, the rice is put into something called an "Usu" and people gather around it and start pounding the rice with a "tsuki bou" (which is just a stick) until it's fairly lump-free. After that is done, next is the SERIOUS pounding. They use a huge hammer called a "kine" and start pounding away, while another person adds a little bit of water to the rice every time the person hammering lifts up. This is to keep the kine from sticking to the mochi. Once the mochi is completely smooth, it is flattened out and cut into pieces small enough to eat. Today, we ate it fresh, but it can also be left out to dry, and then cut into edible sizes later. Another way to shape the mochi is make it into a ball-shape and stacked on top of one another topped with an orange, and is called a "Osonae" and represents looking forward to a new year. Don't ask me why. Here's the video of them flattening the mochi out. Here's a couple pictures of how the mochi can be kept in brick form, or as an osonae And here's a totally unrelated picture of me riding a stone eagle, and Tim humping the air. Finally, if you take away anything from this post, take this: If you're fed up with being bullied by that jerk Perkins kid, take a chunk of fresh mochi in your lunch, so when he steals it, he eats it and learns his lesson good. UPDATE 12-31-08: Here's some picture links - a lot of picture links, or a lot of random things. I don't remember which ones i've already posted, so fogivaness preeze. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005698&l=46a14&id=124400073 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005706&l=914db&id=124400073 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005752&l=774b5&id=124400073 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005868&l=7caa4&id=124400073 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005867&l=9c2aa&id=124400073 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005869&l=da928&id=124400073 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005937&l=06cbe&id=124400073 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005938&l=544e7&id=124400073 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005939&l=96d4e&id=124400073