Record numbers of Chinese hit the sights and the malls in U.S. - USATODAY.com

Recent growth of Chinese economy let their people traveling the world easier.
Record numbers of Chinese hit the sights and the malls in U.S. - USATODAY.com

For Chinese people, it used to be a difficult thing to get VISA and travel abroad freely, but it changed in the past few years.
Not only US government but Japanese, Taiwanese and some other countries welcome Chinese travelers to come fry over and spend money in their countries. They made their regulations much easier for Chinese travelers to enter their countries. 

In Tokyo, I noticed more and more Chinese signs in and outside of the stores. Even the sign of "Union Pay" -Chinese bank debit card- can be found in some stores to attract Chinese tourist to spend their money. 
Surprisingly many numbers of shops in major towns like Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ginza,.... hire Chinese spoken service associates for those tourist from China.

Mid '80s to early '90s, Japanese economy growth was exactly the same. Japanese personal investors kept buying land and facilities in Tokyo and institutional investors had spent so much money on buying American facilities and companies till the "Bubble" economy burst and gone.
Nowadays, Chinese investors are buying land and facilities in Japan, USA and others.

We will see if we, human beings, learn something from the past... or "History repeats itself"!?

"Setsubun" -節分-

Every February 3rd is "Setsubun" in Japan. It literally means "seasonal division" but it usually refers to the beginning of spring season. It is actually related to the Lunar New Year.
Not like other Eastern Asian countries, like Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, etc.., people don't celebrate Lunar New Year's in Japan. So, Japanese set the Feb 3rd as the Lunar New Year's Eve for every year.

Old time Japan, people believed that we need to drive away the evil spirits from the previous year and bring good fortune to come in the New Year. 
So, on the "Setsubun" day, people through good luck beans -roasted soybean- at to someone, can be your family members or colleagues, who are costumed as the "Oni"-demon- and scream "Oni wa Soto, Fuku wa Uchi!" -Damon Out, Fortune In!-

Nowadays, this custom became very commercialised and many sushi restaurants
put so much effort to sell take away "Eho-maki" on that day 

Also, on that day, they like to eat "Eho-maki, 恵方巻き" -Lucky direction roll- which is similar to "Futo-maki" -Big sushi roll- without cutting it into small pieces and look into the direction of the year (this year was NNW). If you eat it, you will be healthy and fortunate in the coming new year.

I also had "Eho-maki" but didn't have a gut to try eating the whole roll without cutting!