NIKKO – Priests pounded mochi rice cakes in a wooden mortar at Rinnoji Temple in Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture on Saturday, the day of the winter solstice. As part of a traditional event, priests dressed ...

The cakes, known as mochi, are cute round buns made of soft and chewy rice. The rice is first steamed and then pounded and mashed. Mochi-pounding at a shrine in Tokyo The resulting sticky rice ...

The rice cakes will be shipped mainly to Nagoya and the Tokyo area. Tomiko Nakano, who is 72 years old and has been making hana-mochi since she was in her 30s, said, “It will make me so happy to ...

Work to make round rice cakes for New Year is in full swing at Yamada Mochi Honten rice cake shop in Nagoya's Mizuho Ward on Dec. 27, 2024. In the work area, where steam was rising from rice ...

Wikimedia Commons Mochi-related deaths have come to haunt Japan again. The delicious rice cake, which is an integral part of the country’s New Year celebrations, turned fatal as two people choked to ...

Despite an annual warning from authorities, a deadly New Year's trend continued in Japan this week as two people died after choking on mochi — a doughy cake made from steamed sweet rice that is ...