Your Japanese word of the week is...

"mochitsuki". This is actually two words put together. The first is "mochi" which is a Japanese rice cake. "Tsuki", for those of you in martial arts, is the word for punch. In essence then, mochitsuki is a yearly event where everyone gets together and pounds rice into rice cakes (although gelatinous rice balls is probably more accurate). And this is what I did this morning at the nearby Shirayuri (White Lily) Kindergarten.

It starts out rather simple really- people make rice and put it in a big wooden container. Then, using a big and rather heavy wooden hammer, the grains are mashed into one big gelatinous goop of rice. After that, you start hammering it as if you life depended on it. It's actually really hard work because the hammer is heavy and the rice sucks the hammer in so it's like beating a quicksand pit into submission. I suppose that's not the most relevant analogy, but that's how it feels haha....... when it's all beat up and goopy, small balls of gelatinous rice are rolled by hand and dipped in what looked like ground peanut crumbs and served.

The significance of this is that each grain of rice represents one person present and mashing them together represents the spirit and mind of everyone coming together. The circular wooden pot also represents spirit, and so it is the joining of everyone's spirit within a larger one. Lastly, while people eat it soon after, it is also offered religiously to gods when the New Year rolls around.

The picture above is of the kids taking their turn hammering the rice. The "adult's" hammer is about twice as big and equally heavier.

But that wasn't all the fun and exciting things. On Sunday I watched the 35th Japan Cup Karatedo which is a sort of national championship. Top competitors came from different areas of Japan, after having proven their ability regionally, to compete to be the best in Japan. It was a really high profile event, taking place at the Nippon Budokan and having only two rings with two giant TV's to cover both rings' action so there was literally no bad seat in the house.

It goes without saying that it was really great watching the best of the best come together for the tournament.

After that, on Monday, I went to the town of Nikko, which is home to Toshogu Shrine, one of the most famous temples in Japan (and a UNESCO World Heritage Site). Located west of Saitama, I went there with Arakawa Sensei and Mike Spain, an American visiting for the week. It was gorgeous in a way only historical time periods at one of the peaks of their wealth can be, with gold detailed temples and scenic backdrops.

The best building, though, was the Yakushi-do Hall which houses the medicine Buddha and the 12 statues enlisted to guard it (each one representing, for lack of better translation, one part of the year). The most amazing feature is the acoustics. Although at first glance the rectangular room seems to be perfectly symmetrical, there is one specific spot just to the right of centre that allows sound to echo clearly, demonstrated by a monk with two wooden blocks resembling square claves. Most interestingly, going to the left of centre by the same distance results in only a dull sound. The specific spot also happens to be directly beneath the mouth of a dragon painted on the ceiling, signifying that the spot is where the dragon can be heard clearest.

The Toshogu shrine is also known for a very steep, 200 step staircase up to a pleasantly simple grave site (for Ieyasu Tokugawa, the first of the Tokugawa shoguns) as well as being the home of the famous "Hear no evil, See no evil, Speak no evil" monkeys, which are cravings on one of the buildings.

So, all in all, a packed few days. The next few aren't letting up either as my schedule is packed with activites as everyone celebrates the end of the year.