Happy Setsubun!

Setsubun, or the bean-throwing festival, is held February 3rd, the last day before the first day of spring (according to the Chinese calendar). The typical practice is to throw roasted soybeans out your window to cast out demons of ill-fortune and welcome in the new year. (I'm a little vague on the exact procedure, I learned this from wikipedia - I guess it's not a standard practice in every house!)

One tradition I did get to take part in was eating makizushi. You're supposed to eat an entire uncut roll (about 6-7 inches or so long) while facing the lucky direction based on what year it is. If you eat the entire thing facing the right direction and without pausing or talking, you will have good luck for the whole year. I think my host mom also said something about making a wish too, but since I can't understand half of what she says...Anyway, this year is the year of the Ox, so we ate our huge makizushi facing west-southwest. :)

Today was also a bit of an adventure day. We ate lunch at Osu (or Osu-Kannon), where there is a famous shrine. The surrounding area has a ton of cool little shops and places to eat. We went intending to grab some pizza (Ashley-I finally understand your pizza cravings. I think even Sbarro's would do at this point), but the place was closed so we went for Mexican instead. It was pretty mediocre, but the azuki flavored soft-serve was amazing. I'm already sad when I think about having to leave the amazing food here in a couple months. Red bean needs to catch on in the US. Fast.



After lunch we just wandered a bit, and managed to catch a mini-parade heading to the shrine. There was a marching band and a bunch of people in various costumes. We didn't stick around for the Setsubun celebration, but the area was pretty packed. There were a lot of decorations up.



Today I also went to the ward office to pick up my foreign registration card! Okay, so it wasn't that exciting, but getting there was, because I got to ride a bike! I didn't realize how much I missed riding mine (or really, how often it really is that I ride it at school), but I had a huuuge grin on my face the whole way there and probably everyone thought I was more than a little crazy. It was one of those city bikes too, with a huge basket on the front which made balancing a little tricky at first. They also have these awesome kickstand things which is actually a triangle-shaped stand that comes down over and under the back wheel. There's also a lock directly built into the bike, which is also pretty cool and different from anything I've seen before.

I also took a much-needed nap today! It was actually really cute, my host mom came in the living room around 6pm, threw me a blanket and was like 'okay you look tired so we're both going to take a nap now.' And we did. On the sofas. I'd like to think that we've bonded over sleep. :)

Hokkaido status: five days and counting!!!