Roll A Fat One!

Nope, I'm not about to start cultivating and harvesting some maryjane, rather I'm referring to rolling 恵方巻き (Ehou-maki) which is a thick cylindrical sushi roll, eaten today on Setsubun to bring one good luck and health. There are some rules involved such as 1. Don't get it wet. 2. Don't eat it after midnight. Oh wait a sec, those are the rules for caring for a Gremlin.

There are basically three rules:

1. It must contain seven ingredients, because seven is a lucky number.
2. It must not be cut, because it might cut (off) your luck.
You have to eat it while facing the lucky direction, which changes every year! This year’s lucky directly is 乙庚 庚の方位(西微南) (otsu kanoe/ kanoe no houkou (seibinan), which is a little bit to the south of south-south-west on a regular compass. If you can read kanji, this page has a good chart.
3. Finally, you must eat the whole roll in total silence.

I picked up my ehou-maki at 7-11, and the most difficult part for me was eating in silence. When I'm by myself that's no problem, but those who know me, know how impossible it is to shut me up when in the company of others.


My 7 ingredients were: egg, crab, cucumber, kampyo, anago, shitake mushrooms and tobiko. I don't know what half of those are either. You can always make your own though, and I highly recommend this site for recipes.




BTW, this is a pic of me sporting my new One Piece umbrella. I posed indoors, so any good luck I inherited today has just been negated by this maneuver's bad luck!