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.