Friday, October 23, 2009

霜降(soko)

Today is soko (霜降), one of nijyushisekki (二十四節季), the 24 solar terms. The last one was kanro (寒露) on October 8 and the next one is ritto (立冬) on November 3. Soko (霜降) literally means frost fall. It is the time to turn the leaves of maple trees and ivy red or yellow. The north wind from today to ritto is called kogarashi (木枯らし),cold winter wind.

They say today is denshin denwa kinenbi(電信電話記念日), anniversary of telegraph and telephone. On October 23, 1869 the construction of building telegraph poles and electric wire between Tokyo (東京) and Yokohama (横浜) began. To commemorate this, the anniversary was established in 1950 by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT). Telegraph service started on January 26, 1870.
I did not expect that I would have a cellphone by myself, but when I had to move to Nagoya (名古屋) to work for Expo 2005, I bought the first cellphone. Now I can't think of the life without it.....

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