The Year of the Dragon

As we are saying good bye to 2011 (and good riddance to that year I say!) we are welcoming 2012, the year of the Dragon according to the Chinese Zodiac. So everyone born in 2000, 1988, 1976, 1964 and so on can congratulate themselves on it being their year this coming year! Here’s the window display at Ginza’s famous Wako department store, showing various ways to write the kanji for the word dragon, 龍 or 辰, with one being the animal and the other mainly used for the zodiac sign. Now don’t take this as an excuse to rush out and get a tattoo! Sometimes old watches in China or Japan use the zodiac instead of numbers to tell the time, in this way, Dragon is between 7 and 9 in the morning.