Busy rice cake store before New Year's Day Hiroshima December 31 10:07
At long-established rice cake stores in Hiroshima, sales of rice cakes for the New Year are at their peak.
The mochi shop, which was founded in Nishi Ward, Hiroshima City in 1907, has been busy since the beginning of the New Year and hires temporary employees to work on mochi.
The work started on the 30th at around 2:00 am, followed by sticking rice cakes using an old-fashioned rice cake mill using stone mills, and employees were quickly preparing them into round shapes.
At this time, the shop uses about 1.5 tons of rice cake, which is almost 20 times the daily amount.
The smell of steamed rice cake drifted around the shop, and visitors came to buy rice cakes one after another.
A woman in her forties who came to buy rice cakes with her family said, "I come to buy rice cakes annually.
Mr. Hideki Hayashi, president of the mochi shop, said, "It was a very difficult year, but I would like to have my family gather and eat a long round mochi.