Setsubun Festival
Setsubun Festival I arrived in Osaka Japan at the end of January 2023 for my study abroad experience. Three days after landing I was still fighting jet lag and the procrastination of unpacking my suitcase when I heard about an event. Talk amongst the other international students at the dorm was about the Setsubun festival taking place that weekend. Setsubun is an annual celebration welcoming the spring season and casting out evil spirits. At Buddhist and Shinto shrines all across the country, people flock together to witness the shows and ceremoniously shed off the previous winter. The prospect of attending my first big event so soon after landing made me forget the 30 hours of flying I had just completed. From my location at Kansai Gaidai University my travel group had to take a 30 minute train ride to the temple. As a country boy from rural Tennessee, the trains were quite a shock to me. I had never taken public transportation, let alone on a system in which I could ba...