Distracted in the Park, originally uploaded by mjd-s.

2 Birthday cakes, a life’s worth of rice, a picnic in the park and many, many presents.

[See inside for exciting mochi cake making video!]

EM did quite well carrying it with the help of Daddy and Mummy. No tears but he wasn’t exactly impressed by the whole deal.

You can’t just pop down the local store for a mochi cake - they need to be pre-ordered before time. We ordered our mochi cake from this store, and it was delivered in a couple of days. It weighed 1.8kgs and cost ¥ 2,625. Their making of video sold us on them - although many stores make them - some will even write the name of your child on the cake and on the carrying bag.

Japanophile has a write up of the tradition.

What to do with a huge cake of mochi? Eat it of course! This recipe was recommended to us but not tried it out just yet:

• Dry it under the sun for 3 to 5 days until completely dry.
• Crush it to small pieces.
• Fry pieces in 180c oil.
• Need a lot of oil!
• Sprinkle with salt and soy sauce right after removing from the oil.

We eat mochi quite a bit anyway so I’m sure we’ll get through it eventually.