60th Cherry Blossom Festival Contestant
Jenna Akie Moriwaki
Parents: Lee and Lori Moriwaki
High School: Pearl City High School, 2005
College: Boston University, 2009
Degrees: Bachelor of Arts in Japanese Language & Literature and Bachelor of Arts in English
Occupation: Educational Exchange Program Coordinator
Interests: reading, hanging out with family, travel, karaoke, and finding “projects” to do
If you make nice mochi, your future kids will have nice faces. This is accepted as fact at my family’s mochitsuki although we cousins repeat a more sinister “if you make ugly mochi…” version. Mochi pounding was a really exciting tradition for me growing up. The entire family gathered to make something symbolizing our hope for the next year. It was always fun and sometimes surprising. Our parents, usually seen as the big bosses at home, all deferred to older relatives with respect and consideration at mochitsuki. So in turn, we kids stopped fighting and tried teaching and looking out for each other. And while the mocha warning might have started long ago to make little kids make nice mocha, we realized that if we work hard, we can shape a pretty nice future, even if we started off with messy an and sticky rice.