February 3rd marks "Setsubun" in Japan - A pre Spring "Halloween" type affair without silly outfits,well kids wear masks and hurls peanuts, soy beans and other pulses screaming "Oni ha Soto, Fuku ha Uchi" - Devils outside ! Good luck inside !

The significance ?

Various reasons abound,. The birth of spring, the celebration of an old monk driving out demons by hurling pulses at them, sometimes the beans are heated, splitting them to encourage the growth of spring as one co-worker mentioned.

Regardless, its a time for supermarkets to stock up on pulse based products accompanied by paper masks for the kids to celebrate a tradition no one really understands anymore including bewildered gaijin like myself seeing kids running around with red devil masks chucking peanuts screaming like they've escaped drowning.