Today is Setsubun, which marks the end of Daikan, or the “Big Cold” period of winter in Japan, and celebrates the coming of spring.
At work today, one of my fellow teachers told me that, on
Setsubun, children throw
roasted soybeans, or
mame, at people dressed up as demons. This is supposed to help ward off evil spirits in the coming year and to bring good luck.
During Setsubun, it is also customary, according to my coworker, to 1) eat a
really long maki sushi roll, 2) eat it while facing southwest, and 3) eat the whole roll without talking. Doing this will bring good luck. I have no problem with any of these requirements, so I stopped by a sushi stand on my way home from work today and bought a special Setsubun sushi roll, which is also
the largest sushi roll I have ever eaten.
The sushi vendor had several kinds of Setsubun sushi rolls on sale, each of them the same long size, but with different fillings. I asked him which one he recommended, and he recommended the special, which turned out to have a combination of tofu, marinated vegetables and shitake mushrooms, and bits of unagi—yum.
(Side note: One of the things I love about Japan is that, whenever you ask a cashier/waiter/restaurant owner what is the recommended dish, I’ve generally found that they really do give you their honest recommendation, instead of, for example, the most expensive dish. True to this, the gruff-ish sushi vendor recommended the Setsubun roll that was on sale to me.)
The roll was huge—
18 centimeters, or about 7 inches, long (yes, I measured it). It reminded me of a few things, which you can decide for yourself.
The tofu, vegetables, shitake mushrooms, and unagi were sweetly seasoned, the rice fresh. I ate all of it, facing southwest, without talking.
The roll also came with a packet of roasted soybeans, the kind you can throw to ward off bad luck. It is also lucky to
eat one soybean for every year of your age. Lucky for me, there were exactly 18 soybeans in the packet.
Below, my Setsubun dinner (with a side of home-cooked udon).
