"Fuku wa uchi! Oni wa soto!"

Today was 'setsubun'--the last day of winter according to the traditional Japanese calendar. Like all holidays, Japan goes all out with special foods and goods. The traditional food you eat during setsubun is ehoumaki a sushi roll that's supposed to give you good luck. It must contain 7 ingredients (because 7 is a lucky number); it must not be cut (or else you're cutting your luck); you must eat the roll facing the lucky cardinal direction (which changes every year); and it must be eaten in complete silence. Then, fuku mame, literally 'good luck beans', are thrown at the person wearing the 'oni', or 'devil', mask in order to drive bad luck away for the year. The good luck saying is: "Fuku wa uchi! Oni wa soto!" ("Good luck come in! Bad luck go out!")
Since I happened to be shopping at the grocery store today, I saw a lot of advertisement for the beans and sushi rolls. In the end, it really just feels like a commercial movement to fill up the space between New Years and Valentine's Day...but commercialism is one of Japan's big characteristics, right?

Again, since I haven't been good about updating this blog, I have lots of photos saved up! I'll start from last Sunday...

Why do Japanese people only talk to foreigners when they're drunk?
I went to a bar with my level 7 Japanese class and it was really fun. We all got to talk freely and say good things about each other haha.
This is frog! I tried it and it tastes like chicken!

 The design of the bar was really interesting. It was based on 50s Japan and had a bunch of old posters and old merchandise around as decorations and old music playing in the background.

 These are the Japanese people that were sitting at the table next to us. They were Waseda University students and super nice but...I think they were only nice because they were drunk...Why are Japanese people only talkative enough to talk to foreigners when they're drunk? This was the first time that Japanese people came up to talk to me. Ever. The girl apparently spent time in the US and her English pronunciation was really good. This picture was actually a request by the guys. They saw my camera and were like, "Take a picture of us!!!" So I did...

 Our new Japanese friends plus Lisa, In, Hinata, and Kathleen.

Let's get lost together
Literally the day afterwards, me and Hinata went to the Ghibli museum--a place where all of Hayao Miyazaki's animated film goods, illustrations, sculptures and such are displayed. This was the ticket. You can't really tell from the picture, but it's a film strip from one of Miyazaki's films. I can't really tell which movie it's from, but I think it's from Howl's Moving Castle--I hope it's from Howl's Moving Castle! (being that it's my favorite Miyazaki movie)

 This was the Ghibli bus, which takes people from the train station to the museum. But, the museum is only about 10~15 minutes away from the Mitaka station and it's a nice walk so me and Hinata decided to walk.

 Almost there according to the Totoro sign!

 This is the giant Totoro stuffed animal at the beginning of the museum.

 Pictures aren't allowed inside of the museum, but you can take pictures outside. This is a character from one of Miyazaki's films which was on the roof.

 The outside is really cute, but the inside is even cuter. My favorite part was probably the replication of Miyazaki's art studio. The walls were covered in tiny sketches that he had drawn of the characters from his movies. The scenery paintings were also beyond beautiful. Everything was so detailed. It was so cute and so beautiful at the same time.

 A Taste of Home
And then today, I spent all day making a taste of home: lentejas and tortilla de patata.
I was pretty proud of how the lentejas came out! The smell of them boiling and then the flavor they had as I ate them felt like I was right at home! It was a bittersweet feeling...

 The tortilla de patata on the other hand...was a failure...Yeah. I'll just leave it at that. Oh well, the taste wasn't bad. One of the Japanese RAs came into the kitchen and asked what I was making. I told him it was a failure of a tortilla de patata, but he said, "As long as you don't tell anyone it's a failure and how it's supposed to look like, it looks delicious!" That kind of made me feel better...