Japan Culture Navi 日本語

Wednesday, October 28 (archive)

Today in Japan

Watercolor of a pen and open notebook suggesting shorthand, autumn mountains in Gunma and a family visiting a museum, passing rain and an umbrella, and early mikan oranges

What day is it?

  1. 1882年Shorthand Day速記の日

    On this day in 1882, Takusari Koki held the first class in Japan to teach a shorthand system he had developed for Japanese. Shorthand lets you write down speech as fast as people talk. The Japan Shorthand Association marks the day, and around this time it holds a high-speed contest to find the country's fastest writer.

  2. 1985年制定Gunma Prefecture Day群馬県民の日

    Gunma has its own special day. On October 28th, 1871, by the old calendar, the name "Gunma Prefecture" was used for the first time. In 1985, the prefecture made this date Gunma Prefecture Day. Many public schools in Gunma take the day off, and museums and other prefectural facilities open for free.

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  3. Light Rain Comes and Goes (one of the 72 microseasons)七十二候「霎時施（こさめときどきふる）」

    From around today, the old calendar enters the microseason when light rain comes and goes. Japanese has a word for this kind of late-autumn shower: shigure. Clouds roll in, it rains for a while, and then the sun comes out again. Poets have written about shigure for centuries, and it is a seasonal word for early winter in haiku.

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If someone asks you

Q

Why is this museum free today?

A

Today is Gunma Prefecture Day. It's not a national holiday, but Gunma has its own day to celebrate the prefecture, so museums and other prefectural facilities let people in for free. Many public schools in Gunma are closed too, so you'll see lots of families out today. A few other prefectures have a day like this, but on different dates.

In season Early mikan 早生みかん Mikan, or Japanese mandarin oranges, start filling grocery stores around this time. The early types picked in autumn often still have some green on the skin and taste a little tart. Mikan are easy to peel by hand, and later in winter many families eat them while sitting at the kotatsu.
Micro-season 53 of 72 霎時施こさめときどきふる Light Rain Comes and Goes Short showers pass through and stop again. Japanese has a special word, shigure, for this late-autumn rain that never settles into a real downpour.

Phrase of the day

It's been raining on and off all day.

Sentence of the day

October 28th is Shorthand Day and Gunma Prefecture Day. It also marks the start of the season when short autumn showers, called shigure, come and go.

Related topics

Sources

Earlier days