Mochi, sticky rice cakes, are a traditional Japanese food for new year celebrations. They have also acquired a negative fame for being, on occasion, deadly. Each year, 10-20 people suffocate from mochi on new year's day, in most cases senior citizens. This is not too difficult to imagine if you've ever eaten mochi: they have the consistency of chewing gum, so that if you have your mouth full of the stuff, there's not way to get it down safely. The smart thing to do is, of course, only bite off as much as you can swallow at once.