Can you hear whistling echoing from far across the mountains? Well, theres a distinct lack of warbling here in the Nippon office, which is a shame, because today is Heidi Day! Why is that? we hear you wondering. Well, as with so many such occasions in Japan, it comes down to a goroawase, a numerical word play on the date. August 12 can be broken down into the numbers 8, 1, and 2, which can be represented by the syllables ha (ハ), i (イ), and ji (ジ), which, cobbled together, give us haiji (ハイジ), the Japanese name for the star of Johanna Spyris classic tale of a young girl, sent to live with her grandfather high in the Alps. As in much of the industrialized world, the Confucian ideal of three generations of a family living together under one roof, the grandparents assisting with childcare, has become increasingly rare in Japan in recent years. Sōma Naoko ponders approaches to family policy that might suit Japan’s needs, taking particular inspiration from the model of South Korea. https://twitter/official_heidi More about goroawase: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_wordplay Image: it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidi_(anime)#mediaviewer/File:Heidi_titoli.jpg
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 14:00:02 +0000
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