Changes

:Thank you, again, Dinsdale - very kind of you. A short answer to your question (before I get ready for work) is that Japan adopted the Western calendar in the late 1800's - probably around the time of Commander Perry - I will need to check and confirm for you. Before then, we used a lunar calendar adopted (stolen?) from the Chinese - 12 months of 30 days, with an occasional 13th month to make up the actual 365 days. The week was also 6 days long - called ''rokuyo'' - something that still survives to this day, as a superstition, as each day was associated with varying degrees of good and bad luck. Most Japanese will swear blind they do not believe in it, but you will find very few businesses opening on a ''Sakimake'' day, which is associated with bad luck in the morning.

:Thank you, again, Dinsdale - very kind of you. A short answer to your question (before I get ready for work) is that Japan adopted the Western calendar in the late 1800's - probably around the time of Commander Perry - I will need to check and confirm for you. Before then, we used a lunar calendar adopted (stolen?) from the Chinese - 12 months of 30 days, with an occasional 13th month to make up the actual 365 days. The week was also 6 days long - called ''rokuyo'' - something that still survives to this day, as a superstition, as each day was associated with varying degrees of good and bad luck. Most Japanese will swear blind they do not believe in it, but you will find very few businesses opening on a ''Sakimake'' day, which is associated with bad luck in the morning.

That was the quick and ugly answer - hope it helped; I will add some more tonight. Might even add an article on Rokuyo, now that I think about it. Will raid the library at school. --[[User:JessicaT|KotomiT]]_{[[User talk:JessicaT|''User formerly known as JessicaT'']]} 16:42, 18 August 2008 (EDT)

:That was the quick and ugly answer - hope it helped; I will add some more tonight. Might even add an article on Rokuyo, now that I think about it. Will raid the library at school. --[[User:JessicaT|KotomiT]]_{[[User talk:JessicaT|''User formerly known as JessicaT'']]} 16:42, 18 August 2008 (EDT)