I used to think mochi was hard and difficult to chew, and also complicated to make. To my surprise, one day my daughter made it at her special school. She was assigned to make it again as part of her holiday homework. We made it with just water and mochi rice flour, as indicated on the flour package. Then we added carrot juice instead of water. These dango are just a bit softer than mochi. The school recipe replaces water with tofu (half flour and half tofu), which theoretically makes it easier to chew, but it didn't turn out well for me. I find it harder to handle and the texture worse, but maybe with less tofu... Black honey can be replaced with maple syrup, something similar. Black honey is essentially boiling sugar with water, like for caramel, but stopping a bit earlier and mixing with honey. Finally, it uses soy flour called kinako, which can be replaced with any flour to taste (almond, matcha, cocoa with sugar...) that doesn't need cooking, for sprinkling. They can also be eaten with sesame sauce made with tahini or ground sesame and honey. Ugly but very tasty.
The dough can use an incredible variety of vegetables/fruits/juices to change the flavor.
Apparently, there are also people allergic to rice who make it with potatoes and potato starch, perhaps similar to gnocchi.
The base is mochi rice flour because it makes the dough sticky. I haven't tried it with potatoes and don't know if it sticks well.