THANK YOU ALL for Mochitsuki
to Our BTSD Sangha & Dharma Friends
[Following is the text of an email sent out early this week from Mochitsuki chairs, Ralph Honda and Glenn Negoro, to our full email list.]
Dear Sangha Members and Friends,
Sunday, December 10, 2023 was quite a day for the Buddhist Temple of San Diego.
Summer-like weather brought sunshine and warm conditions on the temple grounds. This made for an outstanding Mochitsuki Day!
On behalf of Glenn Negoro and I, we wish to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who participated in the temple's annual December tradition of making mochi for the New Year.
From the youngest Dharma School student to the young-at-heart, everyone is to be commended for an excellent job well done! Each individual worked hard and had an important role in the day-long activity. Give yourselves a pat on the back, high five your parents and Dharma friends. For the Dharma School, Sangha Teens, and Jr. YBA and families (19 DS students total): Please share all of the information with your children, letting them know how grateful the temple was of their contributions!
Weekend activities got started on Friday, Dec. 8 when 800 pounds of mochigome raw sweet rice was washed. For some of you, it may be hard to imagine washing such a large quantity of rice if you are accustomed to washing three or four cups for a meal. The rice washers have a technique for washing such a large quanity and have the process down pretty good over the years.
On Saturday, volunteers came out to pull out the mochi equipment from the storage container, wash it down and set up everything. Then, the workers transformed the Annex (social) Hall into a mochi production factory. The lunch crew was busy preparing food for Sunday and the Obon Again "mini" shop and White Elephant were finalizing odds-and-ends before opening.
Stars were twinkling in the pre-dawn sky and the air was brisk when the early crew arrived at the temple at 4:30 a.m. to begin draining the barrels of rice and fire up the steamers to heat the water. Sunday, Dec. 10, Mochitsuki Day was getting underway. All 28 seiro (wooden boxes) were filled with the mochigome and placed on the steamers by 5:15 a.m. for cooking.
Temple volunteers began arriving at 6 a.m. to begin their duties for the day. Students from UCSD and Canyon Crest Academy and San Dieguito Academy Japanese National Honor Society (JNHS) high school clubs began arriving as early as 6:30. More Sangha families and community volunteers arrived as the morning progressed.
The first batch of cooked rice was removed from the steamer around 6:15, ready for processing. Mochi production was underway.
The aroma of cooked steamed rice filled the air. The grinding and pounding of mochi could be heard as the number of volunteers swelled throughout the morning. Cooking, grinding and pouding was in full motion.
In the Annex Hall, the BWA and Sangha ladies along with several of the older DS students and Jr. YBA members were busy cutting and shaping the ko-mochi and kasane while the visiting students were cooling the finished product with the uchiwa (fans). The hall was busy with activity and enthusiastic chatter.
With the packaging crew arriving around 8:00 a.m., the social hall was in full production mode. All three work areas were full and busy and stayed that way until the last batch of mochi was brought to the hall at 12:15 p.m. for processing. We belive this was the earliest the final batch of mochi was delivered to the cutting/shaping station.
The mochi distribution crew began bagging and filling orders. Customers started arriving before 11 a.m. to pick up their mochi, purchase brittle from the BWA and shop at the Obon Again and White Eleplant sales in the Sangha Hall.
Thank you to the many pairs of hands who helped with cleaning the equipment and storing it in room 6 for drying, putting away tables and chairs, and getting the work areas back to pre-mochitsuki conditions.
After a day of hard work, tired muscles and hands, and complimented with smiling faces, everyone was treated to a hearty lunch! Many thanks to the hard-working lunch crew for preparing a bountiful meal and to families for providing side dishes, salads and desserts to compliment the meal.
Each year, the long-time dedicated veterans are one-year older. Working mochitsuki, like any temple activity, requires some muscle and gets a little taxing. But in the end it is very meaningful and rewarding. It is very inspiring to see many of the young Sangha families and friends from the community support a temple tradtion that has spanned 42 years. There is a bright outlook for BTSD's mochitsuki tradition to continue for quite a number of years.
For those who snapped pictures, please share your photos. Publication of photos may be considered for the January Bussei Script newsletter and website.
Mochitsuki is definitely an event that benefits the temple and continues to embrace the San Diego community.
Hopefully, all of you have had a chance to eat your FRESH MOCHI! It tastes so good.
Any comments, good and bad, especially ones to consider for helping improve the efficiency of future mochitsuki events, will be deeply appreciated. We are all ears.
Although everyone on this email is blind-copied, I apologize if someone was missed. Please feel free to share this email with family and friends, and members of your respective groups who you feel may have not received this email.
Thank you again for all of your hard work. The temple is very grateful for everyone's dedicated contributions.
Looking ahead, circle the date of December 8, 2024 as Mochitsuki Sunday.
With deepest appreciation and gratitude.
In Gassho,
Ralph Honda and Glenn Negoro
Mochitsuki Co-chairs
PICTURES TO COME ….