Far Out Setsubun

While Americans seek the news of winter's end from groundhog Punxsutawney Phil, the Japanese are celebrating the end of winter on February 3rd - the official day according to the old lunar calendar. As reported here in previous years, on Setsubun people throw toasted soy beans around the house and shout "Oni wa soto!" and "Fuku wa uchi!" - "demons out", "happiness in".

This year, astronaut Soichi Noguchi performed the honors in the International Space Station, donning an "oni" (demon) mask and throwing candy instead of soy beans (no doubt easier to clean up).



Noguchi arrived at the ISS on December 22 and will be there through May. Among other things, he is growing a garden in the Kibō (Hope) laboratory. He can be found on Twitter at twitter.com/Astro_Soichi, where he is Tweeting from space.