月見 - Is this really a thing?

Every time 月見 (moon viewing) goes past I find myself wondering if this is a huge (e.g. having it’s own noun-worthy) cultural thing in Japan (like cherry blossom viewing) that I haven’t heard of?

For my part, if I told someone I was going to a moon viewing they’d probably be confused and ask me if there was an eclipse they hadn’t heard about.

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Cool!

Looks like I’ve got until October next year to find me a recipe for Tsukimi dango :slight_smile:

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Even I take a few mins to admire a full moon from time to time so not surprised it has a name in Japanese lol

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For what I’m learning about Japanese- casually admiring the full moon is probably a different piece of vocabulary :stuck_out_tongue:

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I’m more perplexed at what a 空車 and 交番 are lol

Oh that’s easy- in Japan Uber has a top level where all the cars are convertibles. :upside_down_face:

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Just like 花見, you don’t go search for sakura blossoms out of season. 月見 you only celebrate at the autumn’s full moon.

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When a cab is unoccupied, theres usually a little sign on the top lit up and it would say 空車 to let you know its available to accept a passenger. I believe thats what the idea is anyway

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Where in the west you have a taxi symbol on top of it, in Japan they have 空車 letters on it and it’s lit when the taxi is empty.

Police boxes 交番 are really small police stations that you can find everywhere. If you have some issue you can get help there.

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Yeah, other messages you’ll see on those signs include, 実車 (occupied), 予約 (not occupied, but going to pick someone up), and 回送 (out of service)

空車 can also mean that a parking lot has open spaces, but you’re more likely to just see digital signs with either 空 for parking available 満 for parking unavailable, and sometimes 混 if there are not many spaces left.

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lol I had a complete wrong interpretation of those from WK… lol

I thought “free taxi” meant a free of charge taxi. Like maybe a shuttle service from a hotel.

I thought “policebox” meant a phone box police might have used to contact the station or something lol

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I always thought a police box was like those blue light boxes, whatever they’re really called, you see on many college campuses. An emergency phone connected directly to the local police station.

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I can just imagine that conversation after you ride.

“But your sign said 空車!! Free deshou?!”

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Haha 空 means ‘empty’ rather than ‘free’ though. That’s 無料。

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I know I was just imagining @damlurker getting out of the taxi after a ride with his misunderstanding of the phrase.

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That would be ターディス :slightly_smiling_face:

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