In my last post, Double without you, I talked about how the Japanese may need to go back to basics and re-learn English from simple ABCs. What they lack in English skills however, you would think they’d make up for in mathematics, right? Well, I’m not so sure…
When you walk around the backstreets of Japan’s sprawling cities, you’ll see bars and restaurants with opening hours displayed in their windows and on their doors. One might wonder why so many of these establishments close at 25 o’clock. Nightclubs, too, are often open until the bizarre hour of 27 o’clock!
I’ve never really adjusted to Japan’s dependence on dates over days and the 24-hour clock over the 12-hour one. Many of my students simply can’t comprehend the question “What are you going to do next Friday?”, but they have no problems with “What are you going to do on June 1st?”
Personally, I struggle with the 24-hour clock, so I was baffled when I saw on Yahoo Japan’s TV guide that this year’s Champion’s League final was scheduled for May 23rd (Wed) 27:35-29:45.
I’ll assume the reason for Japan’s 30-hour day, or at least for Yahoo’s confusing TV schedule, is to help people understand that these programs are part of the previous day’s scheduling. Hmm…
Anyway, I’ve been writing this while watching Liverpool lose in underserving fashion to AC Milan, and since it’s nearly 30 o’clock, I really should get to bed!
