Well i've never yet seen that in England, I must say!Originally Posted by Ewok85
Well i've never yet seen that in England, I must say!
'Let a smile be your umbrella' - Irving Kahal
My Granddad did it all the time, and when I did a search to read some more about it I found lots of .co.uk sites with the exact same stuff ;)
Leon - http://www.leonjp.com
Expat Japan! - http://forums.expatjapan.net
窶敖ｼ窶堙寂堙最ｽﾂｩﾅ津遺堙個幸窶堋ｹ窶堙ｰﾂ、窶敖ｼ窶堙寂堙坂伉ｼﾂ人窶堙個幸窶堋ｹ窶堙ｰ
Yes, you will hear it, but the bottles seem to keep the cats from marking their territory (pissing) in my garage!Yes! I was surprised when I heard about this recently. I've never been able to check it out myself, but I wonder how widespread it is. I don't really understand the whole thing in the first place.
First of all, I think the whole belief is that the cat will see itself reflected in the bottle and run away. Wouldn't a mirror work better?
Also, what's so bad about stray cats anyway? I've heard the downright bone chilling meows they make at night, but it doesn't matter if they're right in front of your house or a block away, you'll still hear it!
>Eating peanuts will make your nose bleed.
>Drinking soda (especially dark ones) will melt your bones.
If they really believed this, it would be hard to explain all the bags of peanuts and cans of soda that are sold in convenience stores as snacks; why Coke is one of the best selling beverages in Japan, and; why peanuts are sold in a such variety as shelled, unshelled, and mixed with those rice cracker things.
>Leaving a window open while you sleep will give you a stomach ache.
>Leaving a fan on while you sleep will make you sick and may kill you.
Maybe your gf was just trying to test your mettle. I've heard that in some karate classes you are forced to train Tokyo in the middle of summer in a room with the windows and doors closed and no a/c. And in Hokkaido during the winter in a room without heating.
Did you pass the test?
I remember reading on a cat website that the bottle trick was something originally discovered in Norway (or Finland). I have found it doesn't work on most cats, and I have never seen anyone with bottles in their garden in England. Here you see them in a lot of driveways withe stray cats knocking them over.
One of my favorites is one I have heard in Chinese communities and in Japan, 'Don't mix lemon with milk' (I like it in my tea). Supposed to be poisonous or something, strangely enough I have survived 47 years of the stuff.
Well, I don't think they believe that simply eating peanuts will make your nose bleed or drinking dark cola will make your bones melt, but rather that eating or drinking in excess can lead to such things. It's more like, if somebody's nose bleeds, they'll try to trace back the last time they ate peanuts and attribute it to that if possible. Kind of like how many people around the world try to blame junk food on acne when (as any dermatologist can tell you) there's not really a connection. But anyway, people still love junk food.
The fan thing isn't really exclusive to Japan. I've heard from friends that people in Korea also believe it, so it's probably East Asia in general. I know that a lot of people really believe this because I've been warned about it by several Japanese friends during the summer months.
Most martial arts are done in school gyms - that means no a/c, no heating, and most of the time the best you can hope for is to leave a door open
As I often do for reading practice, I was looking at some blog entries on mixi.jp when I found a post from a guy who was worried about his health because of a recent nose bleed. In the comments section of his post, I happened to stumble upon the peanuts/nose bleed belief again.
A user commented:
窶愿銀漏窶堙遺堙ｱ窶堙�痴ﾂーﾆ段ﾆ鍛ﾆ団窶佚･窶氾岩堙可食窶堙冷堋ｷ窶堋ｬ窶堋ｽﾅｽﾅ ｾﾋ�遺藩�堙遺堋｢窶堙ｦﾂ。
Translation:
Ever since a time that I ate a lot of peanuts, I haven't had a sudden [nose bleed].
So there it is again. While I doubt Japanese believe eating peanuts alone will cause nose bleeds, they obviously think eating a lot will. What I also found interesting is that the majority of people told him he should go to the hospital. I really don't think an isolated nose bleed or two is cause to see a doctor, but Japanese seem to go for really small things like this all the time. Hypochondriacs? Or is that part of the reason they live so long?
Anyway, that's another topic altogether....
Doctors here tend to overprescribe, and a minority of patients live in clinics and hospitals (tend to be elderly or later middleaged). My wife will suggest to see a doctor over bruises, which I'm likely to ice and say 'ouch' about.
Actually I've heard that one used by American's as well, not quite that way and directed towards young athletes.Drinking soda (especially dark ones) will melt your bones.
"Drinking carbonated soda's are detrimental to the growth of bones. "
Some of these "superstitions" evidently are based on old wives tales as I am sure that nearly every country in the world has.
For example here is one; "Dont each ocha-zukei in the morning"
Now at face value that sounds like a bunch of BS particularly in this day and age of "instant foods" but in the era of no refrigeration the left-over fish from the previous evenings meal was used in the preparation of the fresh "ocha-zukei", and if the fish wasn't fresh anymore it is easy to understand how or why someone might get sick from eating it the next morning. Easy to understand the reasoning behind that one.
How about this one; "Don't go directly home after attending a funeral."
Reason being that it is possible for a person to bring the dead or some dead spirits back home with them. So a person should go somewhere else before going home and once a person gets home have someone from inside the house throw a bit of salt at them to ward off any "dead" spirits that may have remained with them.
these are quite intresting,IMO. Never heard of any of these
well if that fan thing is true i should of been dead along time ago ill test it out on my dad tonite
I keep a fan on 24/7 in my bedroom during the summer. I'm not dead yet!
I find even when i'm really hot, and unable to relax, and thus to completely let go of my excess heat on a summer's night, that if I sleep until norning with a fan on me, I often wake up in the morning with a bit of a chill...
Do you cover with a blanket? You gotta do that.I find even when i'm really hot, and unable to relax, and thus to completely let go of my excess heat on a summer's night, that if I sleep until norning with a fan on me, I often wake up in the morning with a bit of a chill...
Also, like another poster mentioned earlier, the sound of the fan is very relaxing.
Yes!!
Lol, that's exactly what gives me a head chill...
well it might not make you ill but it will keep you warm in winter and keep out burglers lol.
Turnin the fan off at night probably wont save you from illness but it will save you on electricity.Leaving a fan on while you sleep will make you sick and may kill you.
This is a good superstition as well, might not melt your bones but will stop your teeth from rottin and from getting fat.Drinking soda (especially dark ones) will melt your bones.
I dont know how common it is in the UK but i have seen some neighbours here in Scotland keep bottles of water in their gardens to keep cats out.Leaving a bottle of water outside your home will keep cats away.
Interesting, my parents are Turkish and they think its unlucky to clip your fingernails and your toenails at night, also whistling at night is thought to bring out spirits and ghosts instead of snakes. Are snakes considered related to the otherside in Japan?
Can you explain what you mean by stepping on the threshold please?
Its also bad to look in mirrors at night among Turks too.
Wow!! This is another argument to support the thinking that Turks and Japanese are related not only by language, but also culturally. I read about it somewhere and it kind of fascinates me..
Anyway, this thread might be interesting too.
Thanks for the link.
Turks are also very superstitious. I would imagine some superstitions are native to Anatolia, others to the region (Balkans through the Middle East), and others are traditional Turkic folk beliefs.
Its these Turkic folk beliefs that reach all the way into Inner Asia, the traditionally historic homelands of Turkic peoples, that i would think may be related to Japanese folk beliefs as well as other Asian peoples.
I dont know the ancient history of Japanese people but i think there is a theory that they also originated in the same general area as Turks and Mongols, so maybe the superstitions which are similar have a really ancient origin.
All speculative however, although nontheless still interesting.
Thanks for your reply. It's a subject I would like to know more about, but do not have the time for to research it properly at the moment. But who knows, maybe in the future..
By the way, welcome to the forum!!
Thanks for the welcome leonmarino.
I asked my dad why they thought it was bad luck to cut ur nails at night and he said that you will have a short life. I dont know if not being present at your parents death is related (i.e. dying before your parents). Kinda spooky lol.
The nail thing is strange...we grew up with the belief that if you cut a babies nails with a clipper before they are a year old they will grow up to be a thief! So what's so important about finger/toe nails????
I hope life isn't a big joke, because I don't get it. ~Jack Handey
I think old people mostly believe these,younger generations won't completely do that...
But it is interesting that many old chinese more or less believe these Strange Beliefs,such as my grandmother,she always told me not drink too much soda or there'll something wrong with my bones...she also told me not to eat too much peanut or I will get"ﾂ湘｣窶ｰﾃ�" and nose bleed..
I don't know how do these strang beliefs come
-=远窶敕�强汉ﾅｽﾃ�,虽远窶｢K诛=-
Very interesting. I haven't heard some of these and I agree that the fan thing is weird. Right now here where I am in the world it's stuffy in the mornings when I go to bed but the thing that sucks is sometimes that air does get cold. I went on a cruise a couple of years ago and the air was on pretty cold with the room my family and I were staying in and I woke up feeling bad and had to take a warm bath to feel better. I've never heard of the dark soda one. That's interesting and the same with the bottle of water. Does that one work?? We used to have stray cats come around here a lot but they haven't in a while but I'll have to remember that one if it works.
Doesn't seem to work for me.
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