Oni wa soto ... fuku wa uchi!

Did you throw some beans today?

Feb 3 is Setsubun day here in Japan. It's an annual Japanese tradition. 

As explained in www.cute-calendar.com ... 

Setsubun, also called Bean-Throwing Festival or Bean-Throwing Ceremony, is the day before the beginning of Spring in Japan. The name literally means "seasonal division", but usually the term refers to the Spring Setsubun, properly called Risshun celebrated yearly on February 3 as part of the Spring Festival. In its association with the Lunar New Year, Spring Setsubun can be and was previously thought of as a sort of New Year's Eve, and so was accompanied by a special ritual to cleanse away all the evil of the former year and drive away disease-bringing evil spirits for the year to come.

They yell "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" (Demon out! Happiness in!) as they throw beans at the devil.

Our Makizushi for this year ... what a lavish tuna!!!  

It's also a tradition to eat uncut maki sushi on setsubun. Participants eat the entire role in one sitting in complete silence. It's important to face a particular "eho" or lucky direction as you do this. The direction changes each year according to a 5 year cycle... this 2017, the lucky direction is north-north-west.