Setsubun

Today was Setusbun, the day you throw beans at demons to get rid of your bad luck, and start a year of new better luck.
Sestubun in celebrated yearly on February 3rd, and is reminicent of the historic lunar new years/start of spring. The rituals of the day are to cleanse oneself of bad luck, illness, and any negativities from the previous year, and start the new year fresh, by throwing beans at demons.

At our towns shrine, people gathered around a makeshift platform. The preists, all came out onto the platform, and threw beans out over the crowd, people were in a frenzy to catch as many as possible. The preists also threw oranges, candy, and little envelopes of money out over the crowd. People pushed and shoved, and were very rude to each other, in an attempt to get as much loot as possible, which was exactly what I was in the mood for today.

I made out with 150 yen, and some candy. My kind and gentle husband got nothing. As we headed home, I gave my candy to a little girl, who was too kind and gentle for the frenzy.
It was a fun way to spend a half hour, and now I have 150 yen of lucky money that I am going to spend on some peach juice!

**Small note to anyone with a peanut allergy, they throw hand fulls of peanuts into the crowds. The entire grounds of the shrine were littered in soy beans and peanuts. I assume the grounds will be messy for a few days. **

A Day

I've been homesick lately. It mostly boils down to not being active and social enough due to feeling under the weather, and so today Ben and I focused on getting our spirits up.
First thing I did when I woke up was try to call my parents, I miss them, and haven't gotten a chance to talk to them in almost a month. Unfortunately, our internet was out, I was nearly in tears over this, while Ben tried to figure out how to fix it, it just wasn't what I needed when I was feeling down. My charming, patient, and very kind husband fixed the problem, and I was able to call my parents. It was exactly what I needed, and felt a million times better after talking to them. After talking to my mom and dad, I called my sister, and talked to her about her up coming wedding. When I was done, Ben got on the phone with his parents, and I showered and got ready for the day.

It was 70 degrees out and sunny today, in a word perfect. Ben and I knew we just wanted to spend the day outside.  We  went to the neighboring town Fujino, and decided to hike and walk around there. We found a beautiful river, and walked along it for a while, and then we took pictures of a cool statue they have on the side of their mountain. Ben and I were really excited when we found some picnic tables, decided to pick up some bentos from a local convenience store, and go sit outside in the beautiful sun.

The convenience store wasn't a large chain, so it didn't have the usual array of snacks, and drinks we were use to. We found two bentos, and tried to pay for them, but the women told us we couldn't buy them. We still have no clue why, but we left and found another place to buy food, we bough fried chicken and veggies. We took our food back to the picnic tables and sat down to enjoy our picnic, when a man came over and started yelling at us. He was using really rude language, and we couldn't really understand him, but it turned out the tables along the river needed to be reserved, and we weren't allowed there. I was pissed as there was no one around despite the fact that it was the nicest day it has been in months, and mumbled and English swear word under my breath.
To be honest I feel like I'm in a petty fight with the culture at the moment, I feel unwelcome (due to a few people in town) and I miss home. I know in about a week I'll be fine, but right now I'm grumpy about all the things about Japan that I don't like (like all the rules, and no out door eating areas, and racism).

Ben and I spent a bunch more time in the sun, walking around in nature. We seem to have gotten enough vitamin D as we are both much more chipper. We're going to play video games, and yell at the TV tonight, and tomorrow we are going to throw beans at demons (spoiler).
This was today... unrefined, un-embellished...

What the beep are they saying?

Japanese cars speak Japanese, and American cars speak American… Here is a translation chart. Proceed with caution, American cars use vulgar language.

	America	Japan
“Beep”	Fuck you In rare cases it may mean Hello, look at me, or BOOO	Thank you Sometimes it also means go ahead, or hello
Flashing the brights	You forgot to turn your lights on dumbass Or Your brights are blinding me asshole	Go ahead/you first You forgot your lights on, but it’s not dark yet *Japanese are a bit OCD about turning their lights off when not in a tunnel in the dark
Hazards	Holy Shit my Car is about to Implode Or Shit it stalled, and won’t be moving anytime soon	Go around, I’m parking here for a little bit (and I am aware this is the middle of the road) If the car in front of you flashes their hazards it means thank you for letting me pass/merge in front of you
Tail Gating	Go faster mother fucker	Go faster Bastard
Turn Signal	I may turn/merge … or I may be a million years old	I’m going to turn/merge, Please watch out it may be sudden
No turn signal	Anyone’s guess	I am not going to turn
The middle finger	See “Beep”	Your #1! or I’m a motherfucking American, and I’m going to rip your face off *This is really dependent on the recipient, the middle finger carries no meaning in Japan.