Another of REAL's featured subjects is Kazuo. His story of endurance, friendship and heritage are so powerful. His Japanese family's contributions to our community are immeasurable and lasting. This pre- New Year's, December 2010, my daughter, Meredith and I were invited to a "mochi pounding" celebration at "the ranch". As a Japanese tradition, just before New Years Day, the families come together to prepare the rice in steaming vats, pound volumes of it to make a dough, then pull and roll it into dumplings. They are then either stuffed with a sweet black bean filling or left beautifully and deliciously plain.
It has been the practice, as a right of passage, that the young men do the pounding of the rice. However, as this generous Asian family of several generations, dozens of aunts, uncles, cousins welcomed friends and neighbors, even I and my daughter were encouraged to take part each step of the ritual. The first session of pounding is done with carved wood dowels that are about the size of closet rods. The pounders form a circle around a massive granite bowl on a wooden stand. The rice is shoveled into the bowl and we marched in circles pounding the rice for several minutes. The next step was the mallet pounding which is more dangerous and done by only two to four men. Large, squared "croquet" like mallets pound the transformed dough alternately as they each go faster and faster trying to not hit eachother or the single man below who is slipping his hand into fold and scrape the sides of the dough between pounds. It is really quite thrilling to watch! When the still steaming dough is just right, the giant blob, about the size of a baby, is carried into the long table where dozens of women and girls have their duties as pullers or dumpling makers. Flour is everywhere and the chatter is energizing and filled with laughter. They work quickly as the consistency changes with the cooling of the dough on the table.
At the end of the morning, dozens of bowls and tables full later, hundreds of dumplings had been made to share with friends, families and the community and even local hospitals. Some specially prepared "snowmen" were formed by three dumplings stacked with apricot slices on top for good luck in the New Year.
Thank you to Kaz and his family for passing on the experience of their tradition, the treasure of sharing, for enriching your community and those who know you by your unconditional acceptance and love.
We are just starting to get up to speed. Learning all of this is such a challenge to me, as I mentioned in an earlier blog. We truly are so excited about the book release party at La Perla del Mar. Looks like about 250 - 300 people stopped by to share the joy, and it was fun from beginning to end. Our book, Real , features about stories of about 65 people that are basically anonymous, first name only, with photos of their hands. It was really exciting to have most of them at this first party so that they could reveal their identities, only if they wanted to, and also sign their pages in the book. They were like celebrities for the whole night! Everyone was going about and introducing themselves and sharing stories and getting signatures and just enjoying meeting someone new. By the end of the night Terilee and I were glad we had set aside books for the next day, because we had another book signing in the morning at a local church! We really love the support our local community has given us. Thank you to everyone who made it a really successful kick off !!
