Perplexing problem.

[ughaibu]

In Japan at the new year we eat black beans. My wife prepared these on the 30th of December but on the 1st of January was unable to find them. The new year season lasts until the 15th of January but as of yet the beans are still missing. Please ask for any further information that's required. Let's find the beans.

[Jay-qu]

I see... well they will be in the last place you look

[ughaibu]

That's possible but for the moment we have stopped looking so the circumstances will need to change before that'll be the solution.

[Chacmool]

Why is it traditional to eat specifically black beans during this period?

[Tormod]

But isn't it already January 16...

Hm. How were the beans prepared?

[ughaibu]

Chacmool: The word for bean, 'mame', is punned with 'mamemameshii' meaning energetic, so beans are eaten as a form of prayer for health and the ability to work energetically throughout the coming year.
Tormod: Mentioning the date was probably a mistake, I was sensationalising the fact that the beans have been lost for more than two weeks.
The beans are soaked overnight in water, the following day sugar and a little soya sauce are added and they are cooked until soft. The beans had been fully prepared and were being kept in a container described by my wife as "not exactly tupper-ware", she doesn't remember the colour of the container.

[ughaibu]

No ideas on this then? No great surprise or disappointment, it's all very well for Agatha Christie to have Poirot ask a few questions about my wife's taste in music and what she was wearing, then, voila! the beans. It would be nice to feel more adequate to the problem than a fictional character of a dead author but life still has it's compensations.

[inside the sun]

beans beans beans, the american in me says go to chipotle and get a burrito and get black beans