Another day for couples

You may have heard of Good Married Couple Day on the 22nd of November annually, but did you know that the 22nd of every month is Couple's Day 夫婦の日 (fuufuu no hi)? The November one is particularly well known because the 11 can be read as "ii" which means "good" and therefore gives more emphasis to the anniversary.

Although the original establishing organizations, which include famous companies such as the Mainichi Shimbun and Ajinomoto, no longer list the anniversary on their official sites, the spirit of the day continues. Many businesses use the 22nd as an opportunity to offer special deals for couples, such as free drinks at restaurants or discounted movie tickets.

The feature photo of this post is of a couple or married gingko trees 夫婦銀杏 (fuufuu ichou)！(The two trees either side of the photo with shimenawa and shide). In Japan, not only people can be married or a couple, but other living creatures and non-living things from the natural world can be a couple too.