The first two weeks of the new year are over, and Tom Gregersen, 61, is putting away the kine and usu, the traditional wooden mallets and mortars used in the mochitsuki (rice-cake pounding) event held as part of the O-shogatsu Festival at The Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens.
As well as pounding glutinous rice into mochi cakes, the annual New Year's event included the traditional hatsugama (first tea ceremony of the year) and a booth where participants could make nengajo (New Year's cards).
None of these celebrations would seem out of the ordinary to anyone in Japan, but Gregersen lives in Delray Beach, in Palm County, Fla., a city otherwise famous for palm trees, white beaches and alligators. How a museum and garden dedicated to Japan ended up in the swamplands, across the state and below Gator Land and Disney World, is a story that has long fascinated Gregersen.
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