Ringo Mogire Beam!

From the Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei soundtrack lyrics by Ootsuki Kenji. Sung by him and many other characters from the show. It means Apple Plucking Beam! It's a pretty funny song, fits the anime well. Well, today was kind of fun! I went to the Mochitsuki (Mochi pounding) thing. They had Taiko drumming performed about 3 times during the 4 hours of the event. There was a mochi tasting or sampling of plain and an. (An- red bean paste, usually stuffed in the balls. Sometimes it's mixed into the mochi.) Those were good. They had a big steamer to steam the rice in. That looked cool. Then, they had a pretty large bowl or mortar that they put the steamed rice in. Next, they had the kids help out with pounding the rice with large mallets. Eventually, it got to a point where they asked a couple adults to pound it with the large mallets in time. Then, it was just the main guy pounding it while someone who was helping him stuck his hand in and moved the mixture around at the same time. Was pretty cool to see that! It almost looked like his hand was going to be pounded into it. XD After all that, it was a glossy and really sticky dough. They plopped it on a tray that was dusted with potato flour and went inside to make the mochi.

While they were pounding the mochi, it was flying and some landed on the ground. Some people ended up stepping in it. O.O It's so sticky, it's like glue in that state. Really hard to get off. They had a paper that gave some ideas on how to prepare mochi and the traditions behind it. That was interesting. It was a fun event, except for all the little kids running around, the taiko drumming performances being 'sold out', and it raining, and the parking situation. XD (The tickets were free, but you still had to get them in order to go to the concert. So, they already gave out all the tickets.) Nice to go to though. I've had 2 New Year's things that are traditional. The special soba dish and mochi. ;)

Tonight, I'm going to make the Fox Noodles or the deep fried tofu pouches in a soup with udon noodles. In traditional folklore the fox's favorite snack was deep fried tofu pouches, so they call it Fox Noodles. :P I've heard many things about them, but I've never tried it. So, it will be fun to try. Another adventure! :P Since it seems to be lacking in meat and vegetables, Mom's going to make steak and snap peas. Interesting combo. ^_^

Youtube:

A cool video mainly about Toshi's past:

Conveyor Belt :P

Pointing out the obvious when learning a language:

I've felt like this sometimes ^_^: