Japan Culture Navi 日本語

Friday, October 9 (archive)

Today in Japan

Watercolor of a woman mailing a postcard at a red Japanese post box, a shelf of kitchen tools and plastic food samples, a delivery truck, new-season soba on a bamboo tray and ginkgo leaves

What day is it?

  1. 1969年制定World Post Day世界郵便デー

    October 9th is World Post Day. It marks the day the Universal Postal Union, which lets mail cross borders, was founded in 1874. Fun fact: the day itself was declared at the union's 1969 congress in Tokyo. Japan joined the union in 1877, and today you can still send a postcard from Japan to almost anywhere in the world.

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  2. Tool Day道具の日

    Read 10 and 9 as do and gu, and you get dogu, the Japanese word for "tools." Kappabashi, a street in Tokyo lined with shops that sell kitchen tools to restaurants, made it Tool Day. Its tool festival is held around this date every year. Chefs come for knives and pots, and tourists come for the realistic plastic food samples.

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  3. 1992年制定Truck Dayトラックの日

    The Japan Trucking Association started Truck Day in 1992. The date is a pun: 10 can be read as to and 9 as ku, so 10/9 sounds like torakku, or "truck." Trucks carry most of the goods moved within Japan, including the parcels that arrive at your door the next day. On this day, local trucking groups hold traffic safety events.

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If someone asks you

Q

Why do Japanese people still send so many postcards and letters?

A

Honestly, we send a lot fewer than we used to. Most of us talk on messaging apps now, just like you. But some customs still keep paper mail alive, like New Year's cards and summer greeting cards to people we don't see often. A handwritten card still feels more polite, especially to older people. It's a way of saying, "I took time for you."

In season New-season soba 新そば Shin-soba means soba noodles made from buckwheat harvested this season. Most buckwheat in Japan is harvested in the fall, so from around now, soba shops put up signs that say 新そば. The new flour has a fresher smell and a slightly greener color. To really taste it, try it cold with just a little dipping sauce. Micro-season 49 of 72 鴻雁来こうがんきたる Wild Geese Return Wild geese arrive from the north to spend the winter. Their V-shaped formations against an autumn sky are a standard subject in Japanese painting.

Phrase of the day

I'd like to send this to the U.S. by airmail, please.

Sentence of the day

Today is World Post Day, Tool Day, and Truck Day in Japan. They're all about the quiet work behind daily life: sending, making, and carrying things.

Related topics

Sources

Earlier days