Chinese New Year Festival in Yokohama

Chinese people celebrate this day as New Year's Day by the lunar calendar.

Many people, both residents and tourists, gathered in Yokohama China Town to see Lion Dances which are the main event on this day.

Dancers visit many restaurants and shops and perform lion dances with a loud sound of a bell and firecrackers.

They are performing dances in the precinct of Maso Mausoleum. Maso was a Chinese woman who had  ESP and has been deemed as Goddess after her death.

 

Bean Throwing Ceremony in Kamakura

Today is February 3rd. We cerebrate this day as the day to divide two seasons: winter and spring.Roasted beans have been used as a charm against demons since ancient times.They are scattered inside and outside the house and the words ' Fortune in，devils out  ' are shouted.The bean-throwing ceremony is held on a grand scale at temples and Shinto shrines.
 These are the photoes and a film taken at Kamakura-gu Shrine in Kamakura today.

 

Miss Kamakura is poised to scatter beans.

Kamakura-gu Shrine

 

 

A foreign diplomat and his wife