Today in Japan

On October 21st, 1879, Thomas Edison's team successfully tested a light bulb that stayed lit for many hours. In 1981, three Japanese lighting groups made this date "Light Day" to remind people how important light is. There's also a Japanese link: Edison later used bamboo for his filaments, and the bamboo is said to have come from Yawata, near Kyoto.

Zenjimaru is a small sweet persimmon from Asao Ward in Kawasaki, near Tokyo. It's said to be the oldest sweet persimmon in Japan, found in the hills around a temple called Ozenji in 1214. The day marks October 21st, 2012, when the ward chose the tree as its symbol. Persimmons are one of the most typical fruits of a Japanese autumn.

Nintendo released the Game Boy Color in Japan on October 21st, 1998. The original Game Boy, launched in 1989, had a green-and-black screen, so seeing games in color on a handheld was a big deal. It could also play the old Game Boy games, and it came out when Pokemon was already a huge hit.

Waseda University in Tokyo started on October 21st, 1882, as a school called Tokyo Senmon Gakko. Its founder was Okuma Shigenobu, a leading figure of the Meiji era. The school took the name Waseda University in 1902. Today Waseda and Keio are known as rival private universities, and their baseball games are a famous tradition.