Last Sunday I went to Yoshida Shrine to celebrate Setsubun. Like most festivals there were loads of interesting food stalls. I mentioned in my previous post that people often eat sardines at Setsubun, the aim being that the smell scares away the evil spirits! So of course there was a stall selling sardines.
They also had my favourite Japanese festival food: taiyaki. Taiyaki are fish shaped cakes with red bean paste inside. The red bean paste is made from sweeted azuki beans. I love these so much, if you ever find yourself at a Japanese festival you should try them!
On the 3rd February it was Setsubun. This is day when people chase away evil spirits before the start of spring according to the lunar calendar. There are many things which people do in order to chase away the devil:
In some families the father of the house will put on a devil mask while the rest of the family throw beans at him shouting, 'oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi.' This translates as 'devils out, happiness in.'
You are then supposed to eat as many beans as your age, plus one extra as good luck for the forthcoming year.
People often eat sardines as the smell is supposed to scare away the devil.
It is also a tradition to eat a long roll of makizushi while facing in the direction which has been chosen for that year. You are supposed to eat the whole roll in silence.
There are ceremonies all over Japan celebrating this day I went to the biggest one in Kyoto at Yoshida Shrine. The main event was a performance but it was so crowded that we couldn't get near the stage. However we still had a great time, watching the devils as they went past us on the way to the shrine and buying a few things at some of the many food stalls.
After the performance the devils came back up the hill and we followed them as they made their way to another shrine. Not many people walked all the way up so I could get really close and take lots of photos. It was interesting for me because the festival had officially ended so I could see behind the scenes; people taking off their costumes and mothers waiting for their children who had been part of the ceremony.
This isn't a devil. He is the one who is supposed to scare away the devil.
Devil with a strange sense of style, leopard print pants?
I think this devil has been enjoying all the food stalls.
Watching: American Hustle. Went to the cinema this afternoon, my first visit to a cinema since coming to Japan. Japanese cinemas are so much cleaner and spacious than english cinemas! Really enjoyed the film, great story, amazing bunch of actors and wonderful costumes!
Posing: for photos in a purikura photo booth! I have seen these photo booths all over Japan but have never tried one. Today I tried it with my friend for the first time, it was so silly but so much fun!
Throwing: beans around the house to scare away the devil. This was part of the Setsubun celebrations which I was going to blog abot this week but never got round to doing.
Happy Chinese New Year! It`s the year of the horse.
This week I have been
Watching: this video on The Independent website about 48 hours in York. At school I had to write (in Japanese) about my recommendations of places to go in York so I used this for inspiration!
Reading: the latest copy of Kyoto Visitor's Guide and planning which festivals I want to go to this month!
Buying: some new clothes in Bershka which is a shop owned by the Spanish group which owns Zara. The clothes are more casual than Zara and aimed at a younger target market. The prices were very similar except for the pieces in the sale which were ridiculously cheap, yey for me but not sure how great that is for the company!
Photographing: devil`s shoes. I will write more on this during the week but this evening I went to Yoshida Shrine to celebrate Setsubun. It was really fun and I got to see some interesting back stage things.
Listening: to lots of covers by Lily Ahlberg. Her voice is so lovely, below is her cover of Kids by MGMT.
