Lion-approved mochi pounding
日曜日の朝に餅つき大会は2つにも参加しました。
お客様のお布団を上げてから、鹿教湯温泉へ飛んで行きました。上山田神楽保存会は鹿教湯の斎藤ホテルに呼ばれて、ロビーで獅子舞を演奏しました。その後、餅つき大会が行われました。
それが終わってから上山田に戻って、銀座通り商店街の餅つき大会に行きました。つく作業には間に合わなかったけど、出来立てのお餅を美味しく頂くにはちゃんと間に合いました。
嬉しかったのは(美味しいお餅以外）
上山田お神楽の活動と
銀座通りの皆様の努力。
2012年の良い始まり!
One of Japan's New Years traditions is 'mochi-tsuki'. You basically pound mochi rice with a heavy wooden mallet to make sticky rice sweets.
Sunday morning I participated in 2 such events. After flipping our guests' futons, I flew off to Kakeyu an onsen about 33km from here. Venerable Saito Hotel hosted the Kamiyamada Okagura Preservation Group for a lion dance performance in their lobby. After the dance, the hotel staff put on a mochi making event which we participated in.
As soon as the was finished, I drove back to Kamiyamada to catch the tail end of our onsen town's Ginza Dori neighborhood's annual mochi making event. While I didn't make it in time to pound rice, I did get there in time to eat the freshly-made mochi.
What thrilled me the most about that morning (besides getting to eat yummy mochi) was
the Kamiyamada lion dance troupe being so active,
and the Ginza Dori association continuing its efforts to liven up the town.
A great start to 2012!
鹿教湯温泉の斎藤ホテル Saito Hotel in Kakeyu
Ginza Dori's mochi event
