On this day in 1872, the 5th year of Japan’s Meiji period, the gov’t mandated “Western” clothing for gov’t officials, and 100 years later in 1972, it was designated “Western Clothes Day”. 🎌🕴️

An AU store in 2008, where you could buy a flip phone for zero yen, if the signs are any indication. 📷🤳

Woman bundled up with scarf, walking past a storefront of a mobile phone sales shop.

Nov 11 marks the end of WWI (1918) and is known variously as Armistice Day, Veterans Day, Poppy Day, Remembrance Day. Wars still rage, but may there be peace on earth. 🥀

Typical fountain bubbler spigot in Japan park. 📷🇯🇵🛝

Water fountain in Japan park.

Nov 10 is 技能の日 “ginou no hi”, a day Japan celebrates the development of vocational skills such as landscaping, carpentry or PC repair. See JAVADA’s excellent, detailed English pamphlet PDF regarding this subject. 🇯🇵🧑‍🌾✍️🔨

Shimbashi Tokyo food fair colors. 📷🎪

Colorful food fair tents in Shimbashi Tokyo.

The neighborhood in Totsuka Yokohama is really hilly. 📷💦

Long stairway in Totsuka Yokohama.

Long hill in Totsuka Yokohama.

Hill through neighborhood in Totsuka Yokohama.

Nov 9 is “dial 119” day in Japan since 1987 (S62, 3 months after I arrived!) after the fire and emergency services number (more here), during nat’l fire prevention week. Be aware booth phones have buttons & check your 🧯

Fire fighters entering a blaze site in the narrow back street area of Shimbashi Tokyo, Japan.

Japan phone booth phone with buttons for dialing 110 police and 119 fire emergency services.

Kanda, Tokyo’s “Fureai Bridge”. 📷🌁

Pedestrian bridge with red tiled access ramp in Kanda Tokyo.

Nov 8 is World Urbanism or Town Planning Day. I’d be interested in learning more about what goes into large urban planning projects including if protests have ever been effective. 🪧👷‍♂️

Maru the Shiba was freaked out by the wind last night and spent most of the night wandering around and whining in distress. He wouldn’t come be with anyone so everyone is tired today including him. 🐕🥺

A Shiba dog’s face up close.

The tower holds water for disasters, but I snapped this because my shadow lined up in an interesting way. 📷😎

Water tower peeking out behind trees under a clear blue sky.

Asahi Shimbun marked Nov 7 as 知恵の日“chie no hi / wisdom day” in 1988, launching their “modern words bank” column, a legacy kept alive in their kotobank site. 🧐

IndexNow Update Script - automate your search engine URL submissions

“IndexNow” is an automatic way to get participating search engines to come search specified URLs your site, and one cool thing about it is if you submit an URL to one, it gets pushed to all. I wanted an easy and automatic way to submit if there are any new URLs on this blog, so I started thinking of a way it could be done. Let me share that with you.

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Today 11/6 is roll cake day in Japan, from a goroawase word play on 11 “ii” for good, and 6 “ro”ll. 🇨🇭

Roll cake on a plate by 午後紅茶~jawiki on Wikipedia

Night invite 📷🌚

Front of Totsukana shopping complex in evening with commuters.

Nov 5 is “world tsunami awareness day”, so learn about it and ensure you can #GetToHighGround if you are in a risk zone. 🌊‼️

The cosmos in your cosmos 📷⏳

Cosmos flowers on roadside in Yokohama Japan.

Why no, officer, I couldn’t read the sign. 📷🪧

Rusted sign in Japan.

World Heritage Sites are not the only thing UNESCO, established this day 4 Nov 1946 as an agency of the UN, does. Take a moment to learn more about their important work. 🕊️🌏