Hello February.

January has passed by with a flash, and here we are already in February! It's still pretty cold, but there are a lot of awesome spring events coming up here in Chiba!

The mamemaki ritual at Seichoji Temple in Kamogawa.

 Right off the bat, Setsubun (節分) is coming up on this Friday, February 3. This is a fairly popular tradition in Japan, most notable for the mamemaki ("bean throwing") ritual part. Some people do this at home, but this tradition is also celebrated at many temples all throughout the country. These celebrations draw massive crowds who come to get their hands on some of the fukumame (福豆, roasted "lucky" beans). Eating these beans is supposed to bring you good luck!

People are dead serious about getting their fukumame! There's even someone using a plastic bag to try to horde the beans.

Some packets of fukumame I got when I joined in the festivities last year. The top pack had a 5 yen coin in it for an extra dose of luck! I felt super special.

Now that I live closer, I really really want to go to the Setsubun Ceremony at Naritasan Shinshoji Temple!!! It's such a huge deal that they broadcast the ceremonies at Narita on NHK, and then they show clips of the ceremony on the morning news the next day too.

This is because many temples invite big name guests to help throw out the fukumame! Each year, these big name guests usually are actors/actresses from the current/recent NHK taiga (historical) drama as well as famous sumo wrestlers.

The guest list for Naritasan Shinshoji's Setsubun ceremonies include Kenichi Matsuyama, Hiroshi Tamaki, Naoto Fujiki, Kyoko Fukada, and Yasuko Matsuyuki! Hakuho, Baruto, and a couple other popular sumo wrestlers will be in the house too!

More details about the Setsubun Ceremony at Naritasan Shinshoji Temple:
http://www.naritasan.or.jp/setubun.html (Japanese)

More details about Naritasan Shinshoji Temple in English:

http://www.pref.chiba.lg.jp/kokusai/english/information/residents/news/issues/spot.html

This year, the mamemaki will be held three times (11:00am, 1:30pm, and 4:00pm) at Naritasan Shinshoji. Please note that the guest celebrities will only be participating in the 11:00am and 1:30pm sessions.

Happy bean catching!!!