Kneeder Needed こ練る役募集
亀清旅館の玄関にこんなに大きい臼が置いてあります。ここの亡くなったお父さんが子供のころに使ったようなのでその親戚から頂きました。「これで餅をつくか」とお客様に良く聞かれます。特に、年末に。この戸倉上山田温泉の銀座通り商店街で毎年、餅つき大会をやるので私が応援で子供を連れてそちらに行きます。という訳で、残念ながら、亀清の臼は飾りだけになっちゃっています。
（それと、私が打つ役としても、こ練ってくれる人がいない。。。）
At the entrance to our inn, we have this massive "usu", a mortar used for pounding boiled rice into mochi sticky rice. Our guests often ask us if we use it for making mochi, especially around this time of the year. (Mochi-making is a New Years tradition in Japan.) However, Togura Kamiyamada Onsen's Ginza Street business association throws a mochi-making party every year and I take the kids to that instead. So our usu is unfortunately just a big decoration.
(One other reason we don't do it here is you need two people: the pounder and the kneeder. I like to do the pounding, but who's going to kneed?)
このお正月の銀座通り商店街「餅つき大会」が1月3日（土）、午前11時からの予定です。是非、ご一緒に盛り上がりましょう！
This New Year's Ginza Business Association "Mochi Making Event" will be held on 03-Jan (Sat) from 11am. Come on and pound mochi with us!
戸倉上山田温泉の亀清旅館のHPはこちらClick here for the website of Kamesei Ryokan in Nagano.
