One day in December, in the middle of winter...

Since it was the day of "koushin", some people gathered at a certain shrine to drink and talk a bit before the sun went down.

So, umm... What is this "koushin" thing you keep talking about?

When you split the calendar into ten periods and then twelve zodiacs each, koushin is a day that comes once every sixty days.

You've never seen the little altars?