HANKYU NEWSLETTER VOL.173

1:NEXT ONLINE PRODUCT SEMINAR & WORKSHOP

Thank you very much for your kind attendance to our previous "On-line Workshops". We are sure that attendants have learned something more through them. Please kindly be informed that we are now planning other on-line seminar and workshop focused on Kanagawa Pref. as well as Yamagata City. Those are supposed to be held on Feb. 17 or on Mar. 17. For more information, please visit the following URL and click "Seminar" on it.

1. KANAGAWA PREMIUM COLLECTION

Date: Feb. 17 (Wed.)

Time: 19:00 Japan time / GMT+9

Main Contents: 10 exclusive programs and 05 sample itineraries

As you might know, Kanagawa Pref. is located just next to Tokyo Metropolitan. You must have known Yokohama, Kamakura, & Hakone as major destinations in Japan. Those are in Kanagawa Pref. On this product seminar, "Kanagawa Premium Collection", which is something more & something special than usual visits, will be shown to you. Kanagawa Pref. would like to invite and welcome more travelers from abroad through those products. In such major destinations as well as minors, 10 exclusive programs & 05 sample itineraries, specially for richer travelers or people on wealthy class, have been made under the supervision by Kanagawa Pref. For example, those would be an exclusive experience at a temple in Kamakura, a private tour at a museum in Hakone. And also, accommodations at a higher category will be briefly introduced to you in sample itineraries. Such programs and itineraries must be worth to you in order to make a richer tour program. Please spare your time and look forward to this seminar !!

2. YAMAGATA NIGHT & EARLY TIME ECONOMY

Thank you very much for your kind patience. As informed by our e-mail magazines or thanks e-mail for travel fairs, on-line workshop for Yamagata is now fixed. It will be held;

- at 18:00 Japan Time / GMT 9

- on Mar. 17 (Wed.)

Please kindly spare your precious time. More details will be sent to you by our next e-mail magazine or an e-mail from your person in charge in Mar. Through the workshop, you could learn one of the destinations in Japan. Please look forward to it !!      

2:DIARY BY PERUVIAN STAFF

Today I would like to introduce you one of my favorite Japanese traditions from my childhood “Setsubun”. It is held the last day of winter according to the eastern lunar calendar, usually between February 2, 3 or 4, this year it was last Tuesday (February 2). Currently, the most common way to celebrate it is by throwing roasted soybeans around the house and then take the numbers of beans, which corresponds to your age. The soybeans symbolically purify the home and ward off evil spirits that bring misfortune.

“Setsubun” is not a national holiday but is celebrated in all Japanese elementary schools, kindergartens, some shopping malls, shrines and temples. I have very happy memories of my childhood when I didn't even speak Japanese in kindergarten, throwing soybeans to the teachers dressed as "oni" (Japanese ogre) saying "oni wa soto! fuku wa uchi!" ("oni / demon out! happiness in!") without knowing the meaning.

There is one more thing of “Setsubun” that I still enjoy. It is eating “Eho-maki”. This is a “Good fortune sushi rolls” which should be eaten the whole roll without cutting in silence while making a wish.
Also you have to look at the direction of the best luck specified for this year (eho). You can get this rolls almost everywhere and choose the one with your favorite ingredients. Sadly this tradition that I personally love, each year loses popularity and many supermarkets and convenience stores tend to overproduce them causing a lot of food waste.

I hope that more people from abroad know about this tradition and also transmitted to the new generation in Japan so that it prevails many more years.