Nara Sanjo-dori Shopping Street

This guide to Nara Sanjo-dori Shopping Street follows Mitsuo Nakatani, whose Nakatanidou stall has spent three decades pounding mochi at a pace that looks more like a duel than cooking. Two men trade mallet blows on a stone mortar while a third flips and wets the dough between strikes, timed to the half second, a rhythm Nakatani carried here from his childhood village of Kamikitayama in Nara's Yoshino district. You'll hear what drove him to chase that particular speed, and why crowds still stop mid-stroll to watch. Stay for one round and taste the mochi minutes after it was still rice.