Today in Japan

Every year on October 19th and 20th, hundreds of stalls fill the streets around Takarada Ebisu Shrine in Nihonbashi, Tokyo. It is said to go back to the Edo period, when merchants came here to buy supplies the day before Ebisu-ko, a festival for the god of business. The star is bettarazuke, daikon radish pickled sweet with rice koji.

In Japanese, the numbers 10 and 19 can be read as "to-i-ku," which sounds like TOEIC. The Institute for International Business Communication, which runs the test in Japan, picked this date for that reason. In Japan, TOEIC scores are often written on job applications and used by companies, which is why so many students and office workers take it.

The poet Doi Bansui died on October 19th, 1952. He wrote the words of "Kojo no Tsuki," or "The Moon over the Ruined Castle," with music by Taki Rentaro, first published in a 1901 songbook for middle schools. He spent most of his life in his hometown of Sendai, and every year on this day, people sing the song in front of a monument at the Sendai Castle ruins.