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The coldest stretch — and the month with the most concentrated commercial holiday on the calendar. Setsubun on the 3rd, plum trees opening before the cherry trees do, and the country's strangest take on Valentine's Day.
February 2026
Dates for 2026
February 3
Feb 3 · Tradition
The day before spring on the old lunar calendar. Roasted soybeans get thrown out the front door — "oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi," demons out, fortune in — usually with one parent in a paper oni mask getting pelted by their own kids. The other half of the ritual is eating ehōmaki, a single uncut sushi roll, in total silence, facing the year's lucky direction.
Throughout the month / season
Feb 3 · Tradition
The day before spring on the old lunar calendar. Roasted soybeans get thrown out the front door — "oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi," demons out, fortune in — usually with one parent in a paper oni mask getting pelted by their own kids. The other half of the ritual is eating ehōmaki, a single uncut sushi roll, in total silence, facing the year's lucky direction.
Feb 14 · Modern / imported
Imported from the West, then rewritten. In Japan it's women who give chocolate, and only women — with a sliding scale: honmei-choco for the person you actually like, giri-choco for male coworkers as social obligation, tomo-choco for female friends. Department-store chocolate floors run at festival intensity the week before. The reply is a separate holiday a month later.
Early Feb (5 days) · Festival
The reason Sapporo flights triple in price in early February. Self-Defense Force units carve building-sized snow sculptures along Ōdōri Park — usually a mix of historical buildings, anime characters, and one diplomatically chosen foreign landmark per year. Night illumination is the photographable version; daytime is when you can see how the carving actually works.
Feb-Mar · Nature
Cherry blossoms get the press release; plum blossoms get the head start. Pinks and whites open from early February in Kantō, with shrine gardens like Yushima Tenjin and Kitano Tenmangū hosting low-key bairin viewing — fewer crowds, more old men with cameras, the air still cold enough to see your breath against the flowers.