Setsubun

Setsubun is a ceremony celebrated to bring in the spring and send out the Oni (demons). People gather at the shrines during the midday to not only observe the rituals, but to have things thrown at them. Well, that's not quite right. What is supposed to occur is that roasted beans are thrown a the Oni to ward them off in the coming year. At different shrines, celebrities gather (whose birth year coincides with the current year - i.e. year of the dog) and throw goodies into the crowd, which causes a bit of a commotion. There's nothing quite like seeing businesspeople and the elderly in suits fighting each other and scrambling on the ground for oranges, packets of roasted beans, and chocolates.

Some line up well in advance to have a spot right up front to get the best goods. One man int the first row even had brought a huge plastic bag, the mouth of which took in most of the thrown candy.

During this day, you are also supposed to eat your age in roasted beans for good luck and eat an especially long roll of sushi without stopping, while facing the southwest(?) (convenient stores even have signs that tell you which way to face).

Pictured here are the steps to the shrine that we visited. These are called the Steps of Promotion because in ancient times the emperor placed a palm at the top of the stairs and the emporer asked, "Who is brave enough to ride their horse up these stairs and bring down this palm?" Most just looked at him thinking, "For real?" but one brave soldier rode up and rode back down these steep steps, and for risking his life in such a manner, dude got a promotion.