This Is Japan
Explore everyday life in Japan
Various countries around the world have a day that is dedicated to cats. In Japan, that day is February 22. The reason for this is part funny, part cute, and one hundred percent connected to the Japanese language itself.
In English, cats meow, but in Japanese, cats nya- or sometimes nyan. This cat-call, when spelled out in hiragana (a Japanese phonetic writing system), begins with the character and sound ni. Though ni is immediately followed by the character and sound ya, which functions as a blend, tying the ni sound to the ya sound and essentially hiding the distinct sound of ni itself. The fact that the character for ni is used to write this word is significant.
One of the ways that the number two is pronounced in Japanese is ni. That means that the date of February 22, when written numerically (2/22) can be read as ni, ni, ni. Somewhere in Japan, at some point in time, some clever person came up with the idea of tying the ya sound to the ni sound on this day and declaring it Nya-, nya-, nya- Day, or Cat Day.
Though nothing particularly special is done on this day to celebrate cats. I suppose if one really wanted to, he/she could spend an afternoon or an evening drinking coffee, soda, or cocoa in one of the many cat cafes that Japan has to offer. Or, as some of my students chose to do today, a person could find clever ways to playfully decorate the date on his/her worksheet with pictures of cats.
This is an ongoing series that will explore various aspects of daily life in Japan. My hope is that this series will not only reveal to its followers, image by image, what Japan looks like, but that it will also inform its followers about unique Japanese items and various cultural and societal practices. If you are interested in getting regular updates about life in Japan, please consider following me at @boxcarblue. If you have any questions about life in Japan, please don’t hesitate to ask. I will do my best to answer all of your questions.
Informative post as always. Would love to see some photos of your cat cafes in the future.
Cats around the world always want days (by humans) set on calendars for felines.
Great meme! Thanks! I'm working on getting to a cat cafe. Even though there's one right down the street from me, I haven't been able to squeeze in a visit. One day soon.
nyan cat shudder
There it is! Nice find!
I just love your japan posts!
I'm really glad to hear it. Thanks for sharing!
"many cat cafes that Japan has to offer"?? What?? I would love to go to a place like that and then start a business here, I could have plenty of cats at once!! :D
Some cafes, maybe all, function kind of like a shelter, where cats are taken in and can be adopted. I really don't know if that is normal, though.
The cafes I have been in have all had a room, set up a little like a living room, with a couple couches and chairs, a few beanbag chairs, one or two tables, and bunch of jungle gym-like equipment for cats. As you enter, there is usually a self-service drink bar where you can have bottomless refills of juice, tea, coffee, soda, etc. Generally, you pay by the hour for access to the drink bar and can play with cats while sipping on a drink and talking with your friends.
Give it a go in your country!
Thanks for your input!! Now that you told me how theses cafes works, I reminded that I saw a new a couple of months ago about one cafe with cats that opened in Lisbon. Unfortunately, I just found it has closed in the end of 2016, but they all the cats were adopted before the closing!! I didn't had the opportunity to visit it, but certantly I would have loved!
That's good to hear that the cats were adopted.
I have been studying the culture of Japan for some time and I had never found nothing about the cat day until now, really very interesting and funny.
I think it's more along the lines of pop-culture trivia, something here referenced in conversations and mentioned briefly on the news or TV shows. Japan has a lot of days like this that have some kind of cultural significance based on the wordplay associated with the various pronunciations that numbers in the dates have.
Thanks for your comment!
One of my biggest dreams is to visit Japan, im hoping to make it come true. Intresting post m8
A lot of people here on Steemit have said the same thing. It's funny to me because I never ever thought of coming to Japan before happening to find work here. I wanted to go to Brazil. I came to Japan instead, fell in love with it, and haven't left.
Maybe somebody could organize a Steemit explores Japan group tour for all of you who dream of coming here.
Would be nice!
I just need to get a LOT of good posts to be able to pay for that LOL.
Slow and steady is my motto:) Maybe someday they'll do a Steemfest here and people could win a trip. I think there would be plenty of interest.