11/6 - Mochi Pounding

Taketoritei Maruyama has a special treat every morning.  They set up the lobby with a few tables and a giant hollowed tree stump and a taiko drum.  It seems like a strange set up until everyone takes their places and the glutinous mound is placed in the tree stump.  It's a mochi pounding.

Every morning, the ryokan's staff put on this performance of a mochi pounding.  The older gentleman bangs the taiko drums and gives the pounders and mixers a beat to work with.  On one beat the pounder wails down upon the formless mound of glutinous rice.  The next beat, the mixer puts their hand in the stump to move the mochi.  The pounding is definitely as much about the cooking as it is about the performance.  Beat and hammer, beat and hand, beat and hammer, beat and hand.

You're always worried that the mixer may mess up the timing and accidentally stick her hand in the wrong moment or just leave it for a little too long.  I wonder if they practice to get it all right.

After all the beating and pounding and mixing, they take the mochi to a table and portion out two little mochi balls per dish.  Then they roll some of the balls in a powder that was sweet.  Some of the balls and add sauce to the mochi balls.  Then there was some sort of other sauce or dressing that was actually quite sour and bitter to me and I really did not enjoy that mochi.

However, the whole experience of watching the pounding of the mochi and eating it fresh right after, that was quite special.  The mochi pounding was the last of our events at Taketoritei Maruyama.  We went back up to our room, packed our bags, and checked out.  We cleared our tab and we were sent back into the middle of town.

We had quite a while to wait for our bus into Kobe, so we wandered and came across the Kinnoyu Onsen.  By its name, I imagine it takes advantage of Arima's natural kinsen water, the milky and silky golden bath.  Outside Kinnoyu, N decided to partake in the free foot onsen.  As she sat down, she was about to sit down at the bench furthest to the right.  An old man was there and said something, but we weren't sure what he said.  Once N dipped her feet in, I think she kind of put together what the old man said.  The part of the foot onsen furthest to the right was the hottest section of the foot onsen.  Oh and did she feel it.  She quickly scooted to the next section to the left.  It was hot, but just not quite as hot.

After the quick dip of N's feet and me just wandering and taking pictures, we went back to the bus stop and hopped on the bus to Kobe's central Sannomiya area in order to make a connection to a train bound for Himeji.