Setsubun and Kyoto (again!)

I skipped a day! D: Probably you all don't read this that often anyway, but I was doing so well with my every-other-day streak. Last night I got back too late and was too tired to feel like posting, so I'll make up for it by posting this morning. :)

Starting with Thursday. It was mainly uneventful, though we had Setsubun! Setsubun is a tradition performed to scare demons away from your house. It's sort of a new-year cleansing ceremony. You have people dress up as onis, and then toss soybeans at them to drive them out of your house.

Intimidating, no? I think the boxers are a nice touch. Once the demons have been successfully removed, you eat 1 soybean for each year of your life. They're pretty tasty, though lacking in a little salt. Think of really crispy peanuts.
And yesterday we went back to Kyoto! My friend had her passport stolen last semester, and needed to get a police report in order to apply for a new visa. But, of course life is never that simple. We went to one station (where we were told we could just pick up the report and move on), but were instead told to walk 20 minutes to another station. There, we waited an hour and a half for a little sheet of paper with a handwritten note and stamp on it. We hightailed it back to Kyoto Station to get to Otsu, a large town 2 stops away from Kyoto that also has the immigration office. We made it to the immigration office with just 10 minutes to spare (before it closed), and we successfully got her new visa. It was sort of a frustrating afternoon and we didn't manage to do any sightseeing or get the crepes/Arabic food we planned to scout out. However, it's now taken care of, and I actually enjoyed just walking around the city a bit. Here are some of the things we saw. :)A random building I thought was neat. Each of the white emblems is an insignia of one of the daimyos (the ruling families during the Warring States Era).
Traffic closings are so much cuter when they're supported by red pandas! :D
Toji Temple. We didn't go in, but we walked all the way around it to get to police station #2.

Because we were on such a tight schedule, we didn't end up getting lunch until we reached Otsu at 4. (I had tendon, short for tempura donburi. It's basically a tempura rice bowl)
So, before that, we snacked. And Japan has really weird foods. We collectively decided just to get random things and try all of them. So, I had green tea oreos (which taste surprisingly good), black tea Kitkats (which are growing on me), and salad-flavored pretzel sticks (which taste nothing like salad but are delicious). My favorites, though, were the canned drinks we got out of vending machines. You can actually get corn soup out of vending machines - I was a little skeptical but it's delicious. My favorite, though? This!Yes, it is a pancake-flavored hot drink. It's sort of like a maple syrup explosion. I'm a huge fan! It's a shame we don't have stuff like this in America.

Today is the Matenrou Opera concert in Nagoya - we're going to go do some sightseeing in Nagoya first. :) It should be crazy - I've heard visual kei concerts are an experience. So, I'll have lots to tell next time. Enjoy your weekend!