MOCHI FAQ

Yes, we know that "FAQ" stands for "Frequently Asked Questions". Yes, we know that most of these questions will never get asked, let alone get asked frequently. But we decided to answer these questions anyway.

MOCHI is the name of a group of friends who share (to one degree or another) an interest in cosplay. "Cosplay" ("cos" from costume and "play" as in playful) usually refers specifically to anime costuming: we're often some of those crazies who are running around in costume at various conventions. Some of us are involved in various areas of different fandom, but MOCHI is more generally geared towards our anime and manga interests.

The moniker of MOCHI got started because it got to be a pain to refer to "that group of people I cosplay with" and then rattle off the names of everyone. It's much easier to just say "MOCHI".

We like mochi. (Simple, huh. If you ever want to bribe us, you know what we want ....)

No, it's not a clever acronym for a longer phrase. We went through a couple rounds of possible names. Be thankful that you can live in blissful ignorance of some of the doozies that we thought up.

No, we don't know of a place that sells mochi on-line. Most of us fulfill our mochi needs by going to the nearest Asian grocery store or using it as an excuse to go eat at a sushi restaurant.

Mochi are little cakes made out of glutenous rice. You basically steam the rice, mash it, and then shape it into a rectangular "chunk" with rounded corners. It's pretty tasty stuff and can be prepared a variety of ways. One of us really likes his mochi toasted: the outside gets crunchy while the inside stays gooey. Lots of mochi come with a sweet filling: azuki bean paste and black sesame paste are two common fillings. Smaller mochi balls can be used in soups (add VERY shortly before serving) and we've seen references to deep-fried mochi.

Each of the people in MOCHI have mochi code names. Do the code names give deep, meaningful clues to each person's true nature? You decide ....

One of the MOCHI members once pointed out that Mokona bears an uncanny resemblance to mochi. The author thought this was funny until that member then wondered what the author's stuffed Mokona would taste like if prepared like mochi.

BAD PERSON! NO BISCUIT! [Author runs after the other MOCHI members wielding a large mallet.]

So, why is it spelled "mochi" in that funky font that you have and not "MOCHI", which is the way you write it most of the time?

Really, we would have loved it if the font had capital letters. Heck, we would have been happy with just capital letters for M, O, C, H, and I. Yes, we could have just kept looking for the right font that does have all the capital letters we need. But the Evil Web Tyrant likes the font and uses it anyway.

It's a play on "moshi moshi", which is the way some Japanese guys answer the phone. It gives us a sort of friendly feel. ^_^

Besides, mochi.org was already taken. sweatdrop Who would have though that mochi could be so popular?

Er, so we can subject ourselves to the ridicule of both our friends and total strangers?

When we would try to describe cosplay to friends who don't do cosplay, they always wanted to see pictures. So, we decided to post some of them up on the web. (After all, once you've got them up in digital format, you can always, er, "edit" them.)

We also wanted to develop a set of pages that would describe some of the techniques that we've used for our cosplay -- a sort of mini "how to cosplay" site for people looking for some different things to try (and learning about some things to avoid). Not everyone has access to a local seamstress or costume maker.