Setsubun and Snowboarding
Another long absence, and it’s finally time to write again. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if my readership is near zero, but hey, do y’all really want to hear about the mundanities of my everyday life? Didn’t think so. Actually, yesterday I stopped by a large bookstore in
Now, on to some more personal details. Roughly a week ago was the Japanese festival of Setsubun, which represents the changing of the seasons. It’s nothing big, but it is interesting, and I got to participate with a couple of girls I know. It was February 3rd, as it is every year, and they came over to my house for a movie night, yet unbeknownst to me in was also the night of this festival. Kumiko pulled this little set out of her bag that had two simple things in it: a bag of dried beans and a devil mask. The entire purpose of the festival is to drive the demons away, so what you do is throw some beans outside your house and then throw some on the inside as well, saying: “Oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi!” which means: “Demons outside, happiness inside!” My friend Emiko held the mask up to her face and we threw beans at her, laughing and saying the line. Afterwards we picked up the beans and the tradition states that you have to eat the number of your age, therefore I had to eat 26 beans, and let me tell you, the next day it felt like the demons were inside… my stomach! Happiness was definitely without. An interesting if somewhat inconsequential festival.
The following evening I was picked up at my apartment by Kumiko and taken over to her house at around
I won’t go step by step here, but by the end of the day I was really getting the hang of it. I had been snowboarding only twice before this time, and that was about five years ago. For what was basically my first time I was very happy with the progress I had made, and by late afternoon when the group wanted to start heading home I really wanted to stay because I was finally able to get down the mountain without falling on my face every couple of turns. Needless to say, it was a ton of fun, and has given me a little bit of a snowboarding bug. Although I have to be saving most of my money for the big trip I plan at the end of my time in
What I did want to mention was just how beautiful the land was up in
So that’s the update for now. Not much else to report. Plans are going ahead full steam for Christian and I and our journey across southeast Asia. If you would like some more detail on our proposed route Christian has posted up some maps that we devised on his blog. The link is above, on the right side of the page. If anybody reading this has any advice or recommendations in terms of our journey, all information would be greatly appreciated. On another note I will be posting some more photos soon, so keep your eyes out for those. Hope you are happy and well and loving life wherever you are.
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