By day, Takayama is a pretty and vibrant place.

Children feed the fish in the river.

And when they get hungry themselves, they line up for grilled mochi (with a soy glaze) on a stick. Mochi is rice pounded until it reaches a springy, dough consistency. Then it can be glazed and grilled…

Or it can be made into a sweet. We watch an expert sweet mochi maker ply his trade. By the time he finishes dicing the batch we knew we had to try some.