Yesterday was Setsubun, celebrating the start of spring. The day before, the blanket of snow from earlier this week had melted enough for us to make it to Yoshida shrine for a pre-Setsubun ( ceremony. Walking toward the shrine, past all the vendors’ booths — grilled corn, takoyaki, fried sweet potatoes, grilled squid, kebabs — all I could think of was eating. I settled on some grilled chicken dipped in sticky shoyu sauce.
At the shrine, we were stuck in the middle of the crowd, hardly able to see the action. But we caught glimpses of a gang of pajama-suited demons — a yellow one, a blue, and a red — and what seemed to be their leader appeared, yelling and brandishing clubs. They paraded around a bit, scaring the kids, and finally were sent back into the hills with prayer and arrows. I know it all sounds vague, but the truth is, despite my efforts to lift her up, Mari could really only see the shoulders of the people in front of her, so she can’t explain exactly what was going on.
Yesterday, Setsubun, we forgot to do the good luck mamemaki bean-throwing until 2 AM, when Mari threw beans for us both. But we did eat futomaki while facing what we think was southwest.