A War of Cultures – Cultures Clashing

Today in Japan is the "Setsubun", the day that announces the transition of winter to spring. In theory this is something that I would very much welcome, but since the morning news still did features on the grotesque amounts of snow that some areas in Japan are suffering from and that the temperatures still go down to just about 0 degrees C in the morning and evenings when I walk to or from the station I remain unconvinced.

There are also a bunch of traditions associated with this day. It seems to be some form of mix of eating a giant norimaki (you know, the seaweed and rice roll that falls into the sushi category although it doesn't need to contain any raw fish) in one go, eating a lot of dried soy beans, dressing up as an ogre, shouting the slogan "out with the demons, in with happiness" while throwing beans around, among the things I know.

Needless to say, I'm not particularly excited about this highly important cultural event or feel any particular urgency to participate. In general, Mrs. Sunshine is not too picky about correctly celebrating Japanese customs like this, but now with the adorable little Baby Sunshine, she wants to have her experience these types of traditions from now, something which I of course am perfectly fine with as long as my participation can be kept under control.

So we have a silent understanding; she can celebrate Japanese customs and spend some money on the required accessories without me complaining and I can celebrate such important Swedish traditional events such as Midsummer through the traditional way of dancing around huge phallic symbols and getting dead drunk. Not to mention the August crayfish party which I traditionally celebrate the Swedish way by getting dead drunk (I never really liked those crayfish to begin with so I mostly skip those). I have not yet decided whether I will celebrate the December 13th St. Lucia Day the traditional way of getting dead drunk or not, I might be getting too old for that.

(That brings back fond memories of the Lucia tradition in the schools in Sweden where one girl was elected to be the Lucia, the other girls her "light carrying maids" and the boys would be either "star boys", "kid santas" or gingerbread men. I particularly fondly remember the old school racist way of picking the darker skinned adopted kids to be the gingerbread men as “they are so brown and adorable”, us with Asian genes usually could avoid that fate)