11th May – 皐月 Old Japanese music style has unique sounds that are very peculiar, this is because there is a Japanese musical scale exists. Older time before Western music spread in Japan, Japanese used to call the sound of Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti as ヒフミヨイムナ (Hi Fu Mi Yo I MuContinue reading “ヨナ抜き音階 (Yonanuki Onkai) – Japanese musical scale”
Monthly Archives: May 2020
瓦 (Kawara) – Roof tile
10th May – 皐月 Roof tile which are made from clay. The view of Japanese towns is unique – mixture of modern and old buildings everywhere. When you see the rooftop of the houses, you can see the old houses have those fish scale-look roof tiles called 瓦 (Kawara). Kawara is baked very high temperature,Continue reading “瓦 (Kawara) – Roof tile”
アイスクリームの日 (ice cream no hi) – Ice cream day
9th May –皐月 In 1964, an Organisation called 東京アイスクリーム協会 ( Tokyo Ice cream Kyoukai) established 9th May as “ice cream day”. They donated ice creams to the hospitals and schools and held events. In Japan there are various different ice creams exist – from funny tastes to rich tastes, beautiful looks and so on! Today’sContinue reading “アイスクリームの日 (ice cream no hi) – Ice cream day”
漬物 (Tsukemono) – Japanese Pickles
8th May – 皐月 漬物 (Tsukemono)- mainly vegetable soaked in salt, vinegar or rice wine to make the veggies last longer. Making 漬物 is such an easy work so it is believed to have existed already 2000 years ago. At that time, people already knew how to extract salt from sea water. There are variousContinue reading “漬物 (Tsukemono) – Japanese Pickles”
日本食調味料 (Nihonshoku Choumiryou) -Japanese food seasoning
7th May –皐月 Japanese food have very unique tastes compared to the other countries. There is a specific words to explain Japanese basic seasoning – さしすせそ (Sa Shi Su Se So) yes, if you know the Japanese letters, you probably feel familiar to those word! Each letters explain main seasonings for 和食 (Washoku). さ forContinue reading “日本食調味料 (Nihonshoku Choumiryou) -Japanese food seasoning”
5月病 (Gogatsu Byou) – Post Vacation Blues
6th May – 皐月 Today is the last day of Golden week. After this long holiday, some people feel melancholy – this is called 五月病 (Gogatsu Byou). Those people who get 五月病 can have those symptoms: -feeling depressed -feeling sick -do not want to go to work / school -no appetite -feeling tired all theContinue reading “5月病 (Gogatsu Byou) – Post Vacation Blues”
こどもの日 (Kodomo no Hi)
5th May – 皐月 Part of Golden week holiday, the day for children – Respecting the children’s individual characters, wishing for happiness for them and appreciating their mothers for bringing up the children. Some people might have heard that 5th of May is also called as 端午の節句 (Tango no Sekku). However, this is a differentContinue reading “こどもの日 (Kodomo no Hi)”
苗字 (Myouji) – Surname
4th May – 皐月 It is said that Japanese surname exists around 300,000 and there are very common ones to the rare one only 1 household owns. There are 3ways to say surname in Japanese: 苗字 (Myouji), 名字 (Myouji) and 姓(Sei). 苗字 was often used in Edo period, 苗 means seedlings so it has theContinue reading “苗字 (Myouji) – Surname”
憲法記念日 (kenpou Kinenbi)
3rd May – 皐月 Today is a part of the Golden week, 3rd May is a public holiday called 憲法記念日 (Kenpou Kinenbi) – Constitution day. Cerebrate the establishment of the Japanese constitution and wish for the growth of country. The current constitution was announced on 3rd November 1946, and enforced from 3rd May 1947. TheContinue reading “憲法記念日 (kenpou Kinenbi)”
招き猫 (Maneki Neko)
2nd May – 皐月 招き猫 (Manekineko) – The cat shaped ornaments with front hand up. Cats catch mice which harms crops and house. Thus, Cats were appreciated by people and 招き猫 has been considered as a lucky item. There are different shaped and various colored 招き猫. If the right hand is up, it is believedContinue reading “招き猫 (Maneki Neko)”
Little Japan Dictionary 