More than a dozen workers at a traditional Japanese sweets shop in Fukuoka City, western Japan, are busy making mochi rice cakes for the New Year.
Fifteen staff members, or three times the usual number, have been mobilized at the 88-year-old establishment to make red bean paste and small rice cakes.
They are using machines to pound steamed glutinous rice from neighboring Saga Prefecture, and are then kneading the dough into round shapes before placing them neatly on a table.
The shop says because the cost of glutinous rice has doubled, it has had to increase the price of its cakes by 50 percent, but it still hopes that many people will enjoy them.
The shop says it is working full out to make the mochi cakes until New Year’s Eve, using between 400 and 500 kilograms of glutinous rice every day.
The shop owner, Shirai Seiichi, says he wishes he could have kept the cakes as affordable as possible, but he had no choice but to raise the price.
He says he is grateful to customers who show their understanding and place orders, and that he wants people to enjoy mochi, which is an important New Year’s tradition.
AloJapan.com