Next week, here in Japan, it is Golden Week. ‘Why ‘Golden Week?”, you may ask. Well, apparently it comes from the Japanese radio lingo ‘golden time’ which is when a station has its highest number of listeners and is therefore successful. In 1948, many national holidays were passed by law, and several were around the end of April and start of May. Because people had time off they were able to take part in leisure activities and thus this period became ‘golden’.
I also found out recently, thanks to one of my super students, that actually, every day in Japan has a name; some of which are quite bizarre and amusing. Take May 2nd, for example: ‘Pencil Day’; and 28th April, ‘Elephant Day’. There is also ‘Ice Cream Day which I like the idea of, ‘Corn Beef Day’, ‘Orange Day’, and ‘Good Teeth Day’ to name but a few. Today is ‘Good Bath Day’, You may be wondering why, and rightly so. For many of the days’ names, I have no answer, but some are cleverly named based on puns of Japanese words.
‘Good’ in Japanese is ‘yoi’. Bath’ is ‘furo’. ‘Bath Day is on the 26th of April. April is the fourth month, and four is ‘yon’. Two can be called ‘futatsu’, and six can be ‘roku’. Put the pieces tog ether and you get ‘yo fu ro’. Add an ‘i’ and there you have it – Good Bath Day on April 26th! So Happy Good Bath Day everyone! Fascinating, isn’t it?
NELS
TOEIC TOEFL 英検 英会話 ネルス 英語スクール 
Yeah, there is some memorial day every day in Japan. People use it for the conversation or Companies use it for promoting their products, letting many people know their companies’ names. Japanese people like using puns for luck. On the 22th of April, it’s ” YOI FUFU NO HI ( FUFU( 夫婦ふうふ) is a married couple). And also on the 22th of November, do you know what day it is? 22th of November is 11. 22. so….. Did you get it?
How interesting, Yuria.
I can’t work out the answer to November 22nd (not ‘th’), though, so please help me!
The answer is …. it’s similar to 22rd of April. November is 11 so ” 1 ” can be called ” Ichi or Hitotsu “. ” Good ” means ” YOI ” and ” I I ” in Japanese. Formally, we use ” YOI” such as ” YOI HI DAtsuTA It was a good day”. But we use both commonly so ” 22rd of November( 1122 ) becomes ” I I FUFU ” same meaning as ” 22rd of April “. It’s a nice married couple day!
Coming near to the 22rd of November, The hot spa resort hotels such as ” hotels in Jozankei ” advertise it in order to let them come. I’ll tell you other interesting day if I find.
Thank you for teaching us about the meaning, Yuria. Yes, I think it’s a clever way for industries to attract customers.