Setsubun, Samantha, and the National Science Museum

Happy Setsubun

My own little oni

From Wikipeida:

In Japan, Setsubun is the day before the beginning of each season. The name literally means "seasonal division", but usually the term refers to the Spring Setsubun, properly called Risshun (立春), celebrated yearly on February 3. In its association with the Lunar New Year, Spring Setsubun can be thought of (and indeed was previously thought of) as a sort of New Year's Eve, and so was accompanied by a special ritual to cleanse away all the evil of the former year and drive away disease-bringing evil spirits for the year to come. This special ritual is called mamemaki (lit. bean scattering. Mamemaki is usually performed by the toshiotoko of the household (i.e. the male who was born on the corresponding animal year on the chinese zodiac, or else the male head of the household. Pan-heated soybeans (called irimame) are thrown either out the door or at a member of the family wearing an Oni (demon or ogre) mask, while the throwers chant "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" (鬼は外! 福は内!). The literal meaning of the words is something like "Demons (or evil spirits) out! Luck (or blessing) in!" The beans are thought to symbolically purify the home by driving away the evil spirits that bring misfortune and bad health with them. Then, as part of bringing luck in, it is customary to eat soybeans, one for each year of one's life, and in some areas, one for each year of one's life, plus one more for bringing good luck for the year to come. In the Heian era, a famous Buddhist monk was said to have driven away oni by throwing beans.

We did our own version, everyone getting a handful of beans to throw out. Then we ate some. D really liked them, so he ate a lot of extra luck.

The blossoms have already started: see it really is spring!

At the Blue Corn, someone gave Helen a Samantha doll, from Bewitched (the TV show, not the awful movie). It was soon discovered that she was wearing underthings. Just add alcohol and a camera. More pics here.

What she gets for acting like such a tramp

Sunday was the family trip to the National Science Museum. It was amazing. Any visitor to Tokyo needs to go here. Seriously. One of the best museums I've ever seen. I took a ton of pictures. Go see them here. You really should. Here is a really small sampling:

Lucy

Matrix: Evolution

No, this is not a fake. See the photoset for details.

Jeff went to Akihabara last weekend. He wanted me to share some photos with you.

They blocked off the street for Sunday shopping

Spacegirl

Yeah, that's a guy

Scary oldman face and Puppygirl

Erik Chelstad and Callista (I think I met her once) are showing up on Tuesday night, to go to Sapporo with us for the Winter Festival. AND we got our tickets to Singapore!