We Japanese enjoy cherry blossoms viewing of Someiyoshino every year at the beginning of April. But the cherry blossom petals soon scatter within several days from full bloom. The petals that fell on the ground or lawn are also beautiful as well as those blooming on the tree. When petals are gone, red color of calyx becomes conspicuous. The petals accumulated on the sidewalk of pavement is seen. Flowers of dandelion are in good harmony with the petals on the ground.
The color “green” is “blue” and “blue” is “blue” in Japan
In Japan, we call green traffic lights “blue (a-o-i, あおい, 青い). It means “green” in Japan. Therefore, we Japanese call green traffic lights “A-o-shin-go“. The term “shin-go-ki” is traffic signal system. But nowadays, Japanese baseball fans understand the term “green light” used in Major League Baseball. We call green vegetables “a-o yasai (あおやさい, 青野菜)” in Japan. We call the color of leaves of the trees “green (mi-do-ri, みどり, 緑)”. Incidentally, plural form is not used in Japanese. Therefore, don’t say “yasais”.
The color “blue” is “blue” even in Japan.
April 5, 2016
