lusentoj
03 February 2018 @ 10:33 pm
well, today's esperanto club was fun. it's right around the corner from the "Ahago bashi" subway station, aka either 400 yen by subway + 10 minutes walking from my house, or 20 minutes walking from downtown sendai. it's an old-fashioned tiny 1-room apartment; no stove, the bathroom is JUST a toilet (anyone living here would've had to take baths at the local bathhouse), you have to turn the water on for your room yourself by going outside into the apartment yard, then turn it off when you leave!! although it was barely advertised anywhere compared to all the other holidays i've seen so far, today was "setsubun", the first day of spring (it's x number of days after the new year, or after some other event; anyway it's calculated every year). guys wear demon masks and then kids throw beans at them; traditionally in most places it's roasted soybeans i think but nowadays most people are using peanuts in the shell, because they're easier to clean up. tohoku (where i'm living) and hokkaido used different beans than all the rest of japan apparently, but now they've assimilated. anyway apparently the reason for WHY you're throwing beans is, your "inner demons" get chased out of your house and they're not to come back "until these beans i'm throwing sprout". if you use cooked beans, they'll never sprout, meaning the demons will never come back. Read more... )