Tag: Mochi

Today our travel company had arranged an excursion to a farm where we would learn how mochi is made and have lunch.  We were to take the 10:11 train to the Ogotoonsen station near Lake Biwa, (the largest freshwater lake in Japan), and located a very short distance away, northeast of Kyoto. Based on our experience with the cloth dyeing and the tea ceremony I was thinking “Ugh, do I have to?”   

Now that we are “experienced” Japan travelers and very familiar with the Kyoto train station we decided it would be best if we left our hotel at 9 AM to make the 5 minute walk for our 10:11 train.  As you can predict we arrived at the track one hour early.   At least we got some reading done before leaving Kyoto.

The train left promptly at 10:11 (such a surprise) and we looked at the travel booklet as we left Kyoto. We noticed that the booklet said our farm experience was from 10:00 to 2:00.  We thought that was very odd since our train wasn’t due to leave until 10:11.  I told Patrice that this must be a super bullet train. 

A few minutes into our ride I received a call from our tour company asking if we had decided to cancel the farm trip since we weren’t there yet.  I told the agent about the plan as outlined in our travel guide.  He checked our itinerary and said they made an error (such a shock) but everything was fine.  We should just continue on to Ogotoonsen. 

On arrival at the Ogotoonsen station we were greeted by our guide, Asami.  Let me first say I wish Asami could be our guide for the entire trip. Her English is superb and we had no difficulty understanding what she said.  She first took us to a Shinto shrine.  I’ve seen enough shrines to last me 3 lifetimes but this was better because I could understand what the guide was telling us.  Of course at my age I will probably forget everything anyway so I shouldn’t be so picky. 

We then went to the farm house of Tsuji San (San being the Japanese equivalent to Mr. or Ms.) and his neighbor Sumiko San.  They explained (as interpreted by Asami) the ins and outs of preparing different types of mochi. Mochi (also called glutinous white rice) is steamed and then pounded. It can then be served with various fillings or sauces. Tsuji showed us a machine that is used for the pounding but demonstrated the traditional pounding method. He gave Patrice and I a try at the pounding. Lucky for me, Patrice did not video my attempt at pounding. Unfortunately for her, I did film Patrice doing the pounding. She warned me if I post it on this blog or anywhere else I will be talking an octave higher in the morning. She did give me permission to post a screen shot. See below.

We were then given some samples of mochi with a variety of combinations (red beans and a bunch of other things that I was so busy eating that I failed to write down).

Then it was time to go indoors for lunch. We removed our shoes at the entry and then rotated them facing outside to make it easier to put them on when we leave. We sat in a traditional manner (directly on the floor). For those of you who don’t think I got on the floor, here is the proof.

Tsuji then proceeded to make some chicken sukiyaki with the help of Sumiko. We were told that many of the vegetables being used had been grown on the farm.

During lunch we asked all sorts of questions about life on the farm and Tsujii was very open to share. He showed us the floor plan of the farmhouse. See below.

I was specifically interested in this part of the house. See below.

We then retired to the living room for a picture. We also were able to add a greeting in their guest book which I wrote in Japanese (thank you Google Translate) and have dessert.

Then it was on to the train station. A taxi was waiting; it was 2:00 and our train was leaving at 2:13. We arrived at Ogotoonsen station in time and actually had to wait 5 minutes for the ontime train to arrive. Yes, we are not in Los Angeles.

Tonight we are once again getting together with Tomoko, then tomorrow we leave for Miyajima.