I totally gave up eating Japanese special new year’s foods in Toronto. Therefore, I was surprised when I found this information: There is a Mochituki event in Toronto. I invited my Japanese friend who also didn’t expect to eat mochies in Toronto and went together. These mochies were made from scratch by volunteers in the Japanese Buddhist Church. Unfortunately, we couldn’t join the mochi-making part of the event since when I found the event, registration was already closed.
Toronto Buddhist Church
We just went there and bought mochies. There were three options: Osonae Mochi, which is both ornamental and eatable; Komochi, plain mochi, is cooked however we want, grilled or boiled; and Anko Mochi, which has anko, sweet red beans, inside the mochi. We bought Komochies and Anko Mochies.
While we were waiting for these mochies because the komochies were sold out, we had a chance to hear the staff’s conversation. They look like Japanese but a little bit different; they were Japanese Canadians. They spoke English and Japanese yet their Japanese language and behaviour were a little bit different from Japanese nowadays. I knew Japanese Canadians live in Toronto but I hadn’t had any chance to meet them, and this time, my feeling was a little bit curious I understood they have their own language and culture, and also language and culture are always changing. According to some websites, people’s faces can be changed by speaking a different language and a different climate. That is why their faces were different to Japanese people in Japan.
After I enjoyed the conversation, we got the mochies and left. These mochies tasted really good. As a way to share my emotion, I gave some mochies to my friends and all of us enjoyed tasty mochies in Toronto.
These are exactly Japanese mochies!
