Making Mochi (Rice Balls) With The Iki-iki Kids

	I only included this one because it shows my boss... or my supervisor's boss. It's confusing where I fit in sometimes. Anyway, he's a pretty cool boss when you get right down to it. He's pretty busy, but when he has time he jokes with everyone at the office. He doesn't like speaking the little English he knows and has trouble understanding my Japanese so we don't talk much, but I still think he's a good guy. They were just setting up the pounding spot in this picture. note the tarp and newspaper in case of splatter.
	And here we go. You can't really see it, but steamed rice is dumped into a stump with a bowl hollowed out of the top. The kids and adults then took turns pounding it with a big mallet. One of the adults (the boss of the bank of desks next to mine in this picture) folds the rice and makes sure it doesn't stick too much between hits.
	Don't be fooled... that mallet's heavy!
	Someone else taking a turn
	Here's an example of the rice sticking to the mallet.
	Here's me getting a turn with the big ass mallet. Sorry for how dark the picture is. I swung a bit more wildly than most of the kids, so that's why my coworkers were wary of me there.
	And the adults get a turn
	And as close to an action shot as I got
	Once you get the rice paste, grab off a small amount and roll it into a ball, sometimes around a tasty treat (those brown balls), sometimes just plain, and sometimesi n soup.
	Another shot of rolling the paste. The lady in the red head scarf is Yoneyama-san, who sits next to me at work. Almost no English, but she's very nice and has the patience to speak slowly with me, so we can speak together alright. She is the straight (wo)man to Aomi and Sakuraba's pervertedness in the office. It makes things amusing.
	Here's Tanahashi-san playing with some of the boys. He sits behind me at work and is the guy more-or-less in charge of the Iki-iki. He's a fun guy, but his "body is weak" so he can't drink with folks from the office. He'll go to most of the parties, but understandably, he usually leaves early.
	Here's a bunch of the Iki-iki girls holding Aomi-san's young nephew. I assume the kneeling woman is his sister or sister-in-law, but I'm not sure.