Jinja and Shoga: Life in the Land of the Rising Sun

   Today we get a triple whammy in terms of holidays: it's Setsubun here in Japan and Groundhog Day in the US, while China is celebrating their New Year's Day, the first day in the year of the rabbit. As for Setsubun...if you don't know what it is, click HERE for my post on it from last year; all the details are there. Plus a few cute pictures of Wasabi.
  Tonight we're eating ehomaki (also in last year's post), aka futomaki (literally 'fat sushi roll'). As I understand it, ehomaki are basically just futomaki eaten on this day in order to bring good luck, but I could be wrong. Whatever the case, I hear the rolls referred to as both 'futomaki' and 'ehomaki' on Setsubun.
  We also got the roasted soybeans out and threw a few, although not at Keila of course. We did try the oni (demon) mask out on her, because for some reason it has 'Digital TV' printed across the front. And every time we turn on the tv, we have a really, really hard time getting Keila to not watch it! She didn't like the mask very much though, smart girl!

                                              Definitely NOT a little demon

                                          The Oni Mask
                Keila giving a nod to the Chinese New Year with her rabbit hat



                                            Ehomaki. Apparently this year's auspicious direction to face while eating it is south-southeast. Needless to say, I'm going to throw caution to the wind and not bother locating south-southeast before taking a bite.


                                           Roasted soybeans to throw at demons (and to eat, of course).
Being lacking in groundhogs here, we opted for our own futomaki (fat Sushi roll) and held her up to the light instead. Chunky saw her shadow, meaning 6 more weeks of winter!

                                            
                                  And, last but not least...Wasabi enjoying her favorite type of ehomaki!