japanamerica

Letters from Tokyo, February 2022: Throw Those Beans! T.S. Eliot famously called April the cruelest month, but for me and many I know, the cruelest month is the shortest, February, especially if you live in chillier parts of the northern hemisphere. In Tokyo, New Year’s greetings and shinnenkai drinking parties start to go stale while the dark, cold, snow-dusty winter keeps hanging around like a guest who won't leave. Fortunately, February in Tokyo has some strategically placed distractions to help us forget that it’s February. On the third, we had our Setsubun rituals, heralding the arrival of spring and giving winter the memo to move on. We tossed roasted soybeans out our front door to cast away demons and welcome good fortune, shouting Oni wa soto ! and Fuku wa uchi ! Then we tossed some beans around the house, where they crackled softly underfoot until they were vacuumed.  You're supposed to eat one soybean for each year of your life, but that's become several beans to