Well, beans…

Today is 節分(setsubun) in Japan, a celebration of the beginning of spring and to hope for a good year ahead. Setsubun literally means seasonal divide, and a setsubun occurs before each new season. This particular setsubun is called 立春(risshun), and is celebrated every year on February 3rd in accordance to the lunar calendar. On this day all around Japan there will be people dressing up as Oni (demons) and having beans thrown at them. This is in order to drive out all the bad spirits and welcome in the good ones for the coming year. They have a saying that goes: 「鬼は外、福は内」“Oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi!” which can be roughly translated as: “Demons are out, luck and fortune is in!” People say or yell this phrase when they are pelting the Oni with beans. This ritual is called “mamemaki.”

I asked the people at my lunch table today why they threw beans in particular, and my principal deadpanned that stones would hurt too much. After this he went on to explain that it is probably because they were plentiful during that time of the year. He specified a special type of bean called “daizu beans” which are generally harvested in December, making them widely available for every household to use. There was another theory that it was beans, or 豆 (mame) as they are called in Japanese, because of its relationship to the adjective まめな(mamena) which means diligent or hard-working. The Japanese love these wordplays, witnessed most effectively and disturbingly by the golden poop that brings good luck. You all must be aware of this rather fascinating part of Japanese culture. “un” is the word for luck, or fortune (one of them anyway, as a few astute members of my reader base will have noticed that “fuku” from “oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi” was also translated as luck and fortune.) “unchi” is the word for…the other thing. Thus, because they share a similar sounding name, the two have become linked together. It was probably given a golden color because even to the Japanese a too realistically looking piece of feces just does not look good on display in the house.

Getting back to the story, my principal believed that this relationship explanation was not used during this day of setsubun, but rather for the Japanese tradition of eating beans for new year’s. A similar tradition, but a different time of year.

After lunch I had another class, but it turns out that the staff room was all abuzz about my “why beans” question. When I got back from class I overheard a few people talking about it, so I joined them. According to the main administrative person, who looked it up, the real reason is a bit less exciting than the theories floated earlier. Apparently it originally came from China to Japan during the Heian period, approximately 1200 years ago. During this period, Japan was quite an agriculturally based country, as can be expected. Being that agriculture was so important, beans were considered quite valuable and beholden of special powers, which were thus used to repel the evil. “Why not rice?” Well, my fellow teachers were unsure, but I theorize that even at that time Japan’s staple food was rice, it was a symbol of wealth and status, and was simply too important to use on demons. Beans did not hold quite the reverence in this day, and they still do not today.

Yet another idea offered up by the gym teacher this time went along the wordplay lines. Another word for oni in Japanese is 悪魔 (akuma.) People would be aiming for the eyes of the demon (鬼の目玉をぶっつぶせ！oni no medama buttsubuse! “Blind the demon’s eyes!!” and eyes in Japanese are 目 (me). So, they are aiming for the akuma no me (the demon’s eyes,) or akumame which for those of you who remember is the word for beans in Japanese.

I can’t decide which of these theories I find the most interesting, but I love that the entire staffroom got involved in researching it! Like a lot of cultural things in Japan, we will probably never know the real story, which really makes this whole deal all the more fascinating. I am not sure if I will be throwing beans at anyone today, but I am glad I learned more about this great Japanese tradition! Hopefully you all are now a little more enlightened as well!

Happy setsubun!

-Dash

Breaking Ice in Japan

The past two days at two different schools have been “open days” where people can come in and watch the teachers teach. On Thursday I was involved, teaching a 5th grade class for about 30 odd principals, parents, and other teachers. I was slightly nervous, mostly because I did not make the lesson plan, meaning I didn’t feel as comfortable doing it. It went alright though, as this group of kids is great, and are always eager to learn. On Friday luckily I was not involved in the open house at my favorite school, but I attended a speech by a woman from Oita University about how to talk to children. How to praise and how not to praise them. It was focused on teachers and parents, and of course was all in Japanese. The great thing about it was that I understood more than 50% of it, and got all of the major points she was trying to make.

The problem was that in the beginning she wanted to do some ice breaking exercises! I understood this because she said she wanted to do some アイスブレーキング(ice breaking.) She asked all of us to pick a favorite number between one and five. We then had to stand up and go around shaking other people’s hands while conveying the numbers we were thinking of without using words. We had to wink. Except that apparently Japanese people can’t wink. It was awkward enough as it was because no one in attendance thought I spoke Japanese, and thus shied away from me. On top of that, I was a studly winker. Many people commented on my ability to close only one eye at a time. Once we had found people who had thought of the same number (I thought of three) we gathered in a circle, and then together sang a song called the “Tulip Song” apparently. I did not know it, but luckily it was easy enough to pick up the rhythm. The speaker then came up and asked one person in each group what their favorite animal was, and what sound that animal made. Using this sound we were then to, once more, hum the song. The guy from our group who was asked chose a pig, and so our group was stuck singing “Buuu Buuu Buuu!” to the rhythm of the song. It was actually a lot of fun, but slightly awkward. It’s always nice seeing Japanese people do these crazy things though, because this is very much like something that might happen in America, which makes them all the more real to me.

The rest of the speech was interesting, she spoke about the kinds of things children take in from their teachers and parents, but the most interesting part of it was the woman’s assertion that using “I” in a sentence praising a child goes a long way to boost their confidence. Instead of simply saying: “Great job!” saying “I think you did a great job!” gives them much more. Another good thing to say is: “You’re really helping me out by doing this.” when asking a kid to do something. Apparently because you make it personally about you, they feel much better about it.

I’m glad I went, and even more glad that I was able to follow the speech, something that makes me quite proud and very excited to continue to study Japanese and get even better.

And now for something entirely different, and since blog posts without pictures just seem so bare and unattractive, here are two pictures I took of some small doughnuts I bought at my new favorite grocery store, which has its own bakery, which makes its own French baguettes! Booya!

A long and winding road

It was such a lovely January day today in Nakatsu, I thought I’d take my bike out for a little spin. I had planned on going about an hour out to the spot along the Nakatsu-Hita cycling road I had been to before. When I hit that spot, though, I was feeling really good, so I decided to go on. I finally stopped when I arrived at Yabakei, at the man made tunnel, made entirely by one sole monk, doing his best to atone for some kind of sin he committed. I am hazy on the details. Of course I had to bike back still, but it was no problem. Grand total: 32km, about an hour and a half of biking, and some fabulous sights!

Here’s a short list of what I saw:

A man peeing on the side of the road
A man walking his cats. Yes, his cats.
Proof that an L.A. Gang has an outpost in Japan

Pollution that never looked so pretty.

All in all, a great day, and I came back refreshed and feeling great! Ready to start a new week.

A shake-up at chez Dashi-ru!

After five plus months of sleeping on the floor, I was finally fed up. Away with the double futon on the cold floor! Away with piling three semi warm blankets on top of me and another around my feet to create a relatively comfortable sleeping space! Say hello to the newest addition to my apartment:

Snowkatsu

I know it is taking me a few days to post things, so these posts may be a bit out of date. Unfortunately due to my internet situation I had a few blog posts piled up which I wanted to post first.

Last week Wednesday it snowed. I’m not sure why I was so surprised by it, but there you have it. It snowed just about all day, these huge snowflakes falling down left and right, covering all of our city in a dusting of cold, white snow. It was actually quite pretty, and I resolved during work that when I got home, I would go out and take some pictures. Following are the results. Since the climate is a bit warmer than what I am used to, there were still oranges (I think they were oranges) on the trees, and flowers in full bloom, making for quite a few nice contrasting photos. I tried to be a little artsy in a few, but I suppose it’s up to you all to decide whether I succeeded in that. Unfortunately because it was still snowing when I went out, a few of my photos have some barely visible, but still rather annoying fuzzy blotches on them thanks to the strategically placed snowflakes that landed on my lens. I didn’t have the resources or the energy to clean them off, so I just hoped for the best. Most of them came out fine. I call this series of photos “Snow in Nakatsu: Where even flowers wear hats.” It’s a working title…

Enjoy!

-Dash

Not sure what it is about snow in Japan that makes it look so pretty. Maybe because the idea of snow on Japanese buildings isn’t something one thinks of very often, so when it does happen it’s extra special.