Yesterday was the day for all kinds of celebrations. As I mentioned before, I was going to attend the real Setsubun festival and I did, yesterday. It was quite the experience and definitely different from the one this weekend. So everything was happening at this temple, Zojoji, and they attached a platform in front of the temple to make it easier for everyone to see and to throw the beans.
It started out with a parade of people like before, the kids, people who would throw the beans, a bunch of people carrying the same dog (???), and some sponsors. There was quite a bit of talking, though I had no idea what was being said as it was in Japanese! Then the chaos began. They started throwing random bags of chips and small bags that had beans in them. People were pushing and shoving with arms failing just to catch these things. Next came the parade of "devils" and the kids throwing beans at them, which was super cute.
So my friend Jenn came with me and we were both quite surprised at the aggressiveness exhibited by the older Japanese people. So we stayed and endured another 2 rounds of pushing and shoving. She managed to get some beans, and I managed to get a bag of green tea bread chips (which didn't taste bad) and a bag of ramon noodles. Like I said, definitely different. When I got the second bag, this old lady behind me starting yelling and saying something and I was like "calm down, sorry, I'll give it to you if you stop yelling at me." This was also the lady who was like my size and kept trying to get something, but the height factor was totally against her AND she kept hitting me in the face or in back of the head with her hands. UGH.
After that, we were done and went to have lunch. We both enjoyed it and definitely something you have to experience. However, I was really glad I went to the one this past weekend, where it was calm and civilized.
This was after we walked away and were headed to lunch...
Anywho, always an adventure here. I'll post the rest of the pictures, so if you have time, check them out!
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