In the run-up to the New Year in Japan, many families make mochi, a thick cake of glutinous rice. Mochi is eaten throughout the year and is prevalent in wagashi (Japanese sweets), but is closely associated with the New Year season. Families and friends often gather to make mochi, using an usu (mortar) and a large wooden mallet (kine).




The rice is soaked overnight before being steamed in a metal bowl over a fire. As the rice is pounded, it forms into a paste and is then formed into balls by hand.


Mochi is eaten often with kinako (soy flour), asuki bean paste, toasted black sesame, or nori (dried seaweed laver).


Mochi is used in a veriety of Japanese cuisine, from mochi ice cream, to soups, and special New Year dishes. Probably the widest use of mochi is in wagashi, Japanese sweets. Daifuku are small round cakes of mochi filled most commonly with anko (sweet azuki bean paste). There are many different types of daifuku, including ones filled with strawberries, chocolate and mugwort.

New Year in Japan – O-shogatsu お正月 – is the most important holiday of the year for most Japanese people. It’s a time to be together, to spend time with your family, to visit friends, and for the first shrine visit of year called Hatsumode.

Like most festive seasons in Japan, it is highly structured and there are many things to do. From around 29 December to 3 January, most people are off work and they stay at home with their families. Many Japanese also take the opportunity to travel, both inside and outside Japan, and it’s a busy time for trains, buses and flights. Accommodations are packed and often put up their prices quite dramatically.
Here I will talk about the main events over O-shogatsu.

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