Amami Superman Photography

First off, I'd like to say, influenza sucks butt! I caught it earlier last week and I haven't felt that sick in a long while. It knocked me flat. But, I'm recovering and now and I'm just trying to get over a nasty cough that I'm left with.

Last Sunday all the 3rd graders from my daughter's school, Naze Elementary, and all the 3rd graders from a nearby school called Itsubu Elementary, got together to have a recreation day together.

They played a few different matches. At first they had the children divide by school and then played all boys and all girls matches. They also had fathers play a match against theirs sons and did the same with mothers and daughters and at last, school against school. There were so many kids the school against school was almost impossible and all they did was threw in three balls and let the kids pelt each other. It was complete chaos and none of the children followed the rules. They'd get hit, pick up the ball and throw it right back without sitting out. But it was fun to watch the kids get so excited like that.



Jade is a pretty competitive girl and it's matches like this she really enjoys. She also started playing basketball this year for the school team and is having a ball (pun intended).




You're probably asking, "What is mochi?" Well, simply put, it's pounded rice. I don't think they use just any rice to make mochi, but a special kind specifically made for mochi making. They cook it like regular rice and while it's still warm they dump it into a large mortar like this and begin to smoosh it with large wooden mallets.



Once the rice becomes quite pasty, it's ready to be pounded to into mochi.



They had fairly light mallets for the children to use and they let each child take a few swings at pounding.







Once the rice is pounded into a puddy like consistency, it is ready to be divided up.



The white flour-like substance is most likely cornstarch. This is used to keep the mochi from sticking to everything. The mochi is divided up into golf ball size pieces and then is rolled into nice round balls.









It was a great day and all the children had fun playing dodge ball, making mochi and making new friends. Some kids from my daughter's school didn't want to miss out and even though they were sick and had fevers, they still showed up to have a good time. I think it was here that I caught influenza. A few days later I wasn't feeling well and my daughter was sent home from school early because too many of her classmates were absent after catching influenza. Go figure.