Mochi

Yesterday I saw what must have been the very last of this year's cherry blossoms, still clinging to a few wind and rain defying, seasonally-tardy cherry trees in Tsukuba.

I was with Hibino-san, a retired Japanese housewife who has taken me under her wing while I've been in Tsukuba. Though she's 67 years old, she is full of endearing exuberance. We were driving back from lunch at her house when she spied some blossoms along a river and with an eager cry turned the car off the main road. Though late for our calligraphy lesson, we parked and admired the last of the sakura, and I admired her energy.

Over dinner she had begun to remind me strongly of my own generous and capable Mom, especially when she showed me a storage area full of bean paste (miso) and pickled plums (umeboshi). Apparently she makes huge vats of each and supplies all of her children and their families with enough miso and umeboshi, among other foodstuffs, to last a year.

When I asked if I could snap her picture, she wanted to include her dog :)

When we were done with dinner (the entirety of which came out of her own garden) she and I made Japanese Mochi ("Now let's have some fun!"). First we mixed rice with a green herb (the name of which I didn't catch, and which she also picked wild) and then flattened little balls of the now green rice and wrapped them around a sweet red bean confection. Then we decorated the outside of each half moon with pink sakura petals and yellow flowers. I was thrilled to learn of a dessert that I can easily make myself and which doesn't contain any wheat.

We made enough to give one to Takeuchi-san (our calligraphy instructor) and she sent the rest home with me to give to Anne and company. At dinner my niece Alisa munched (or rather ruminated) for several minutes on a huge sticky ball of the stuff (she'd crammed most of it in her mouth). After considering his struggling daughter for a while, Toshio informed me that a) mochi (being very sticky) is a serious choking hazard (this was not hard to believe watching my niece) and b) the best way to help someone who is choking on mochi is not the use of the Heimlich maneuver, but rather the use of a vacuum cleaner. Then Anne chimed in that you have to use the small, Japanese tubular vacuums because American vacuums are well, too big. This induced an image of some exuberant American holding up the huge rectangular mouth of a vacuum cleaner against the face of some poor choking Japanese person... Eager to avoid such a painful scene, we all three suggested Alisa give up and spit out the excessive mochi. I think she was relieved to oblige.

...

Ninja Alisa, clashing marvelously: