Thursday, March 4, 2010

三月四日(sangatsu yokka): March 4

It was cloudy in the morning but started raining in the afternoon and is still raining. They say it will be very warm tomorrow, but from the weekend it will be very cold again.

The cycle of warm days and cold days is expressed as san kan shi on(三寒四温) in Japanese, which is literally means three cold four warm. After repetition of three cold days and four warm days, spring will come.
This four words phrase is called yoji jukugo(四字熟語). Another idiom using the number three and four is cho san bo shi(朝三暮四), literally means morning three evening four. This is from the Chinese historical fact. The king was going to give the three treats in the morning and four treats in the afternoon to the monkey, but it got angry. And he said he would give four treats in the morning and three treats in the evening, and the monkey was very glad.
That means the result is the same after all, but they can't notice the difference.

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