Serene state of mind

1. Time flies - the year 2017 is ending in about three weeks!
In this June, postage on postcards was raised.
But price of government-printed postcards for New Year's greeting is frozen at least in this year.
There is a condition we must be careful about: We have to post from December 15 so that they are received by January 7. Otherwise they are returned to senders or receivers have to pay the shortage.
When I read about the rise in postage on postcards on newspaper, the first thing I thought was:
In our country, in case someone dies, family members in mourning refrain from upcoming New Year's greetings including greeting cards, noticing in advance with postcards by the beginning of December.
It's unfair that postage on mourning notification is raised while postage on New Year's greetings is frozen.

2. When I was waiting for my order at a small restaurant, a group of international visitors came in.
They asked a staff whether this restaurant serves dishes without beef.
　But unfortunately, all the dishes in this restaurant contained beef.
　　So this group left the place -what a bad luck.
Although I didn't know whether this question was from health reason or religious reason,
Nowadays, package of processed food and menu at restaurants indicate allergy-provoking materials.
At that time, I wondered whether it's necessary to indicate ingredients prohibited by religious rules as well, with pictograms if possible -especially at restaurants.

3. Think of it as rather childish questions - as of December 2017 A.D.
His Imperial Majesty's intents must be taken on top priority for upcoming abdication of the throne.
In the meantime, one of the problems for general public could be:
Needless to explain, in our country, when the new Emperor accedes to the throne, the name of Imperial era changes, too.
I'm afaid it's confusing if era name changes in the middle of a year - simply because current Imperial era started from early January 1989 A.D.
As long as all the people concerned agree, there should be no problem if abdication takes place in the middle of the year 2019 A.D., though -or general public seems to have no right to say something about the schedule.
I must confess that I've wished I could do something with labor to convert between dating system in our country and the dominical dates - simply because former Imperial era and dominical dates are easy to convert.
What if they set the latter half of the year 2019 A.D. as transitional period from old regimes to new regimes, in order to start using new era name from the next year 2020 A.D.?
Then it would be easy to convert between dating system in our country and the dominical dates in the next Imperial era again. -I'm not considering upcoming Olympic game.
Other labors -which I have to get by as one of the nation:
It can be difficult to calculate how many years between certain date and other date.
For example... Twin longest-operating spacecraft were launched on 52nd year of former Imperial era, and they are still on mission in this year, 29th year of current Imperial era.
　With this expression, compared to the dominical dates, it's hard to find out immediately that this year is 40th launch anniversary
　　-Although it's an easy way to impress change of time.
Besides, every time the era name changes, government offices and public institutions and firms and organizations must prepare new document forms and calendars with new era name, which is true for computer system nowadays.
I've also thought that those problems wouldn't come up if we wrote dates with the dominical dates from the beginning -birthdays, preparation dates, contract dates, and so on.
-Even just for on the whole of business, science, and legal procedures, that is.



I realized that different language gives me a different point of view -and that's simply why I'm doing such things, although I don't think this weblog is read by many non-Japanese-speaking people.
Also; twin Voyager spacecraft are going to stay on mission for three Imperial eras in our country if things go well without serious trouble.
-Amazing! Keep going, deserving the name!