Homepost - Tigerdate: 20220125 
Tanuki Scroll XXV: 偽物の汽車 
Read today’s folktale from… it doesn’t say where it’s from 
A train driver keeps seeing a phantom train that appears on the tracks heading toward them, yet it casts no shadow or shade. One night the driver, frustrated with having to keep braking for it, braves the collision not knowing if it’s a ghost train or what, the trains crash yet aren’t derailed and the other train just vanishes, パッ！
Turns out it was a tanuki who had a burrow near the tracks and was frustrated that he couldn’t take naps with all the noise. So the priest has made him a nice new nest near the temple so he doesn’t have to turn into trains anymore.
Today is also, 中華まんの日！
Chinese dumpling day! Because… on this day, in 1902 was the coldest recorded temperature in Japan, at -41C in Asahikawa (Hokkaido), so you eat the dumplings to keep warm!
Must resist looking up recipes again, but… dumpling…
☆ Learnings ☆
New Words
シュッポ ー The noise a steam train makes; I guess: シュッポシュッポ = chugga-chugga. Also, it means “plunger” the kind you use to unblock sinks.
ドカーン ー Kaboom! Or the sound of a collision.
パッ ー Poof!
はて ー Dear me! Good gracious!
もしや「若しや」ー What if…?; Perhaps; Possibly
巣穴「すあな」ー Burrow; Den
史上「しじょう」ー In history; Historical
Alt Meanings
中華「ちゅうか」ー Chinese Food. (can just mean “Chinese”)
Places
旭川「あさひかわ」ー Asahikawa, Hokkaido