Here’s some information on the days of the week that those with a cursory knowledge of Japanese may find interesting.

Now, these are the days of the week in Japanese (literal translation of kanji in parenthesis):
月曜日 (Day of the Moon) = Monday
火曜日 (Day of Fire) = Tuesday
水曜日 (Day of Water) = Wednesday
木曜日 (Day of Wood) = Thursday
金曜日 (Day of Gold) = Friday
土曜日 (Day of Dirt) = Saturday
日曜日 (Day of the Sun) = Sunday

Long after I learned the days of the week, I learned the names of the planets in the Solar System (literal translation of the kanji in parenthesis):
水星 (Water Planet) = Mercury
金星 (Gold Planet) = Venus
地球 = Earth
火星 (Fire Planet) = Mars
木星 (Wood Planet) = Jupiter
土星 (Dirt Planet) = Saturn
天王星 (Heavenly King Planet) = Uranus
海王星 (Water King Planet) = Neptune

This means that if you take the English names of the days and match them up with their planetary origins, you’ll have the Japanese names of the days.
Monday = Moon Day = 月曜日
Tuesday = Mars day = 火曜日
Wednesday = Mercury Day = 水曜日
Thursday = Jupiter Day = 木曜日
Friday = Venus Day = 金曜日
Saturday = Saturn Day = 土曜日
Sunday = Sun Day = 日曜日

Once I realized that the days’ names in English and their Japanese counterparts have the same root meaning, it created an, “Oooooohhh!” kind of moment.

Anyway, there’s quite a bit of history behind all of this. If you feel so compelled as to read about it, here’s a section on Wikipedia I came across that’s a good start for further reading.

Popularity: 40% [?]

Like it? Hate it? Either way, subscribe to the Lucky Isle RSS feed!