Mysterious things in the mailbox.

I don't know how many times a year people do this over here, but there are certain times in the year when you're supposed to offer gifts to the neighborhood gods.

One afternoon, the lady next door (the classroom I work in is in a residential neighborhood) rang the doorbell and asked me if I wanted to make a donation to the local god. She asked me if I "wanted" to, but she wasn't exactly "asking" me you see, and I had no idea what she was talking about, so I gave the 500 yen ($5) donation to her.

About an hour later, I hear these chants outside and I got curious, so I peeked out the window and saw the monk(?) waving those white papers around chanting. I know this custom is a part of the Japanese culture, but I must say, I don't get it at all.

A couple of hours after that, I checked the mail and found a bag of stuff in it (pic). I looked inside and had big question marks in my head. What'd I find? A small packet of bonito shavings, two slices of squid, a piece of seaweed, and two rice cakes. Whaaaat??? I thought it was a prank at first, but then I realized they must be from that chanting ceremony that was happening earlier, and the neighbors divided up the things they presented to the gods.

I didn't know what the two white strips were so I smelled them....whoa, they were stinky! They were dried squid...

I wonder what people do with these...are you supposed to make soup or something? Since I had no idea, I just microwaved the rice cake and ate it with soy sauce...was pretty good =).