Setsubun was Friday, and me, Yoko and a couple of my friends all trundled down to the local shrine for some good old-fashioned bean-throwing. My mom always made a big deal out of holidays and I had a great time when I was a kid and everything was magical. I'm not sure if Yuki felt the magic, exactly, but I had a good time, and we even got on TV.


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I'm back in Tokyo now and I can't stop smiling. Returning to my city never fails to bring a grin to my face; I truly love this place. Jumped back into everything right away- there's a lot to do before June 4th. But first, more Hokkaido:


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The only good thing about the hell known popularly as August are the festivals. You wear stupid garish coats and lug heavy mini-shrine encased gods through the streets as people throw water on you and eat whole fish on sticks and maybe an octopus leg and catch goldfish that live forever and get bigger and bigger so you keep having to buy larger ( Read more... )