Sep 5, 2024 Salon
Guests:
M-san, K-san, A-san, A'chan, S-san
Discussion Content:
K said she saw my Instagram photo of my wedding. It was my 31st wedding anniversary on Sep 1st, and I uploaded a photo we took in Paris. I mentioned that we had the wedding in a church near the “Arc-de-Triomphe”, which is French for “The Arch of Triumph” (Gaisen-mon).
K said that she also got married in a church here in Tokyo, and the priest was a Spanish man she knew. She said it was a church inside Jouchi University. I mentioned that there is a Christian University close to where we are, here in Takabana, which has a church and a clock tower with a big bell. M said she has been inside there several times and that anyone can just go in through the gates. Me and my wife have often gone past there and wanted to go inside, but assumed that we were not allowed to. M said she thinks it would be fine to go in, so maybe next time we will.
As a joke, I said if someone stops me I will tell them that M said I could go in, and I asked for her surname. She said it’s an unusual name – “Mutsukado” – meaning “Lands-gate”. I thought that was a very good-sounding name, like an upper-class English name.
I asked everyone if they remember their wedding date. S had to do some calculations in his head to work out the year. Masami was married in the same year as me – 1993. A was married in 1999, and so will be having her 25th wedding anniversary this November – her “silver” wedding anniversary.
We then talked about the different names for wedding anniversaries. I said there are silver, gold, diamond, and even a “paper” anniversary. In western countries, the number 25 is also considered important (because it’s a quarter of 100), and so that’s a big wedding anniversary time.
A'chan said her wedding was in 2007, which is said as “Two thousand and seven”. M mentioned that she had heard the period from 2000-2009 was called “The Noughties”, which is true, but somewhat as a joke, because the word “nought” (meaning zero) sounds almost the same as “naughty” (meaning bad), and so it’s a pun to say “The Noughties”.
M then mentioned the phrase “maiden name”, meaning a woman’s surname before she was married, and we talked about Japanese surnames and their meanings. In most cases, English names don’t have an obvious meaning – or the meaning is from another language – so Japanese names are interesting for western people. K said the kanji in her first name mean “scent+wave”.
Useful phrases:
Triumph
assume
coincidence
surname
nought
naughty
anniversary
A quarter-century
tin (type of metal)
random
whatever you like