Setsubun

While Americans spent their Sunday watching the Super Bowl, the Japanese, never to be outdone in the excitement department, threw soybeans and stuff. February 3rd is Setsubun in Japan. It marks the traditional end of winter. In my mind, it is the Japanese equivalent of Groundhog's Day. The main event of the day is called mame-maki where people throw lucky soybeans at imaginary demons in their house and scream at them to get out (sometimes a family member wears a demon mask and is chased outside). Also, a lot of the bigger temples have celebrities throw bags of soybeans to people. The video above shows the bean throwing at Narita-san Shinsho-ji, a temple in Chiba. Yokozuna Hakuho and fellow sumo wrestler Baruto tossed beans. A couple of very popular actresses, Haruka Ayase and Ayame Gouriki, are also shown.