There are only two days left in this year, and rice cake shops in Maebashi are busy making rice cakes for the New Year.
A mochi shop in Hanageishi-machi, Maebashi City hires temporary part-time workers at the end of the year, which is the busiest time of the year, and makes mochi for the New Year, which is seven times as many as usual, and is used for ozoni.
The employees placed the machine-made rice cakes in a wooden frame, flattened them, cut them quickly with a kitchen knife, and carefully packed them one by one.
This shop uses glutinous rice that they produce themselves, but this year, the price of 9 pieces of rice cakes, which was 600 yen so far, has been reduced to 700 yen due to the rise in fertilizer prices and the impact of high crude oil prices. It means that the price was raised to yen.
Maiko Kitazume, who is in charge of manufacturing and sales at the mochi shop, said, "We are particular about the production and processing of mochi rice, but we had no choice but to raise the price as production costs soared. I want you to eat it and have a year full of smiles full of energy next year."