Much the same as so many Thursday mornings last year, this week's began with a lesson in which we spoke to Japanese students about various things. However, the subjects were a little bit deep and (at first) uncomfortable to speak about - rather than the usual "Ooh, getting a job in Japan sounds hard," or "What do you think of our project work title?" we had to attempt to discuss things like "What kind of person do you think other people see you as?" or "Is there a difference between a lover and marriage partner?" and so on. There was a thinly-veiled theme to it all - generally the issues of the balance of work and homelife, where roles of men and women fit in and if attitudes are changing.
We were also introduced to some project work we'll be doing for a week or so mid-February. This has been planned less so with an academic focus (counts as 1% of the final grade) but rather a social one. The way the Japanese academic calendar falls means that the main part of the University will be inactive for a while, hence there won't be many Japanese native speakers around for us to talk to. Therefore a number of students from Miyagigakuin Women's University (MG for short) in Sendai volunteered to come over and spend some time with us. The object of the project work is to introduce and explore a certain area of Nagoya, in the hopes that everyone will gain some enriching experience.
After all business was concluded at Uni I headed off toward Osu Kannon for Setsubun. Setsu-what, you ask? Setsubun is a Japanese holiday to welcome in Spring (the next day is called 立春/risshun, lit. "Standing Spring"), although since time immemorial people have remarked that it seems to be placed rather early in the calendar. Similar to the British "Out with the old year, in with the new," a cry of "Oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi!" generally goes around - out with the demons, in with good fortune. This is accompanied by throwing beans, which are thought to ward off the evil spirits for some reason. This much I knew already, but seeing a public performance at a major temple was to throw new light on the proceedings.
In front of the temple entrance a stage of scaffolding and whatnot had been erected (see picture below), on top of which stood the various M.C.s and people involved in running the event. Groups of people came up onto the stage in turn, a mighty cry of "Fuku wa uchi!" went up, and the beans were scattered. No "Oni wa soto," apparently it was recently taken out due to the idea that sending the Oni away might equate to sending it to someone else. Something else that surprised me was that people were very enthusiastic about trying to catch the beans - those near the front of the stage were holding up carrier bags and the like. I didn't catch any but a nice lady who had a few gave one to me. It tasted dry, but I had high hopes for the Spring and good fortune it was meant to represent. As a slightly odd note to sign off on, I had a kebab for lunch.
