When we moved to Seattle on September of last year, we knew we will be unable to attend several traditional events back in L.A.. One of those events is our beloved Little Tokyo's New Year celebration.

But now that we are living up here, we have found a couple of events that will become a new tradition.

The first one was held at this past Sunday, January 5th across the water from us on Bainbridge Island.

The Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community (BIJAC) held this event called "Mochi Tsuki", to celebrate the new year by sharing the tradition of making and eating the sweet rice treat called mochi.

The mochi you eat was actually made right there; they had two stations to steam rice, then any attendant could volunteer to pound the rice with wooden mallets to later be taken to a building with lots of experienced cooks make the final product.

Three great Taiko performances were held during the day and overall Kim and I had a great time enjoying hot tea, and fresh sweet mochi. We will back next year for sure.

Take a look at the photos and videos we took.

The second event is a surprise since I have not told Kim what it is or where it's at, she only knows is the first weekend of February... stay tuned.

Beto Jubei