About thirty minutes before the doors open, the mochi starts.
Glutinous rice flour - not regular rice flour, not wheat. The starch structure is different. It is what gives mochi its stretch, its soft resistance, the way it pulls apart slowly instead of breaking. Mixed with water and sugar into a loose batter, then steamed. Not baked. Steaming is what transforms it - the starches fully gelatinize, and the wet batter becomes something elastic and workable.
This is where the ice cream does something useful. The cold filling cools the mochi from the inside as it wraps around it. The result is soft but clean to hold - a thin exterior that gives way easily when you bite in, without the stickiness you might expect from freshly made dough.
What you are eating was made a few hours ago, by hand, in our kitchen. No machinery for the wrapping. No shipping frozen from a facility somewhere else. The seal at the base of each piece was pressed by hand. The slight variation in shape from piece to piece is how you know.
The difference between handmade fresh mochi and anything pre-made is noticeable in the first bite. The exterior is thinner. It yields instead of resisting. The texture changes quickly after it is made, which is why we make it fresh and why it tastes the way it does.