If you happen to be in Japan in early February you should be able to catch a Mame-maki event at a local shrine. Early February is when Setsubun 節分 occurs, and the main event is mamemaki.

At home, usually the father of the house will throw a paper demon (oni) mask over their face, stand in the entryway to the home (genkan), and growl as the rest of the family members throw beans at them while shouting, “oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!” 鬼は外！福は内！

If you can get to an event at a shrine you may be able to participate in something like this…

This particular event happened a Nogi Shrine 乃木神社 in 2024. You can bet they will do it most every year baring something like… COVID.

They are tossing bags of soy beans, like this. In 2024, at this specific shrine event, some of the bags had a number attached to them. You could then bring that number to a booth at the shrine and exchange it for a fancy prize. The prizes were everything from boxes of bottle green tea, to sake, to bags of Japanese snacks.

If you’re in Japan in early Feb, seek out a shrine during setsubun! Might be fun!