Overnight hours in Japan: 25:00, 26:00, 27:00 and so on...

Yes, you've read it correctly: In Japan you can actually find times beyond 24 o'clock. So what about it?

First off, their meaning is actually quite easy to figure out: So as seen on the left the picture of a store close to Ebisubashi in Osaka shows for example '28:00'. Basically 24+4 so 4:00 AM. 

Personally I have only seen this in Japan so far, so I got curios about it and wanted to find out what kind of reasons are behind that way of counting.

Interesting reasons

As demonstrated before one reason is that it's an easy way to calculate time frames starting the day before going beyond 24 o'clock. For example a TV show runs from 23:00 until 25:30. Now you can easily calculate that the length of the show was 2 hours 30 minutes.

So the hours beyond 24 are actually applied for things which start before midnight and go until a certain point during the night. This also counts for bars or night clubs.

Another reason is to avoid possible confusion between AM and PM. If a store has opened from 08:00 - 02:00 without using AM/PM there can be actually two meanings.

Also, the closing time of a store going into the next day will also be considered as the business day starting from the day the store opened.

Here it means: From Monday to Thursday opened until 27:00
Friday, Saturday and Sunday opened until 28:00

And there's also a thing about the cultural perception about the hours in darkness which should better fit into the previous day, starting with the day in the morning with the sunset.

I also read that there are other countries using that system in specific situations. Like UK, Hong Kong or China.

On the other hand there are also occasions when Japan uses the 12 hour system.

My opinion

It's surely an interesting approach and definitely easy to get used to, although it can be confusing at the beginning. Especially the reasons make totally sense to me why people are thinking that way.

If there's a connection to the previous day, use hours beyond 24! So surely, why not?

The Ebisu Bridge in Osaka

The Ebisu Bridge is a popular spot in Osaka in the Dotonbori area and during my time in the city it was one of the first places I went to see. Here's what I experienced and why I went there a few times.

Interestingly, I knew about the bridge even before I was actually there, because I already heard about this bridge in the anime Detective Conan (名探偵コナン) in episode 763 and 764. In that story it was mentioned that the Ebisu bridge in Osaka is an infamous spot for people to meet. In that particular case it was about a meeting for a possible drug deal.

So.. on my first 'complete' day in Osaka I went there from the hostel following the Dotonbori River. I came from the western side along the river seeing through the letters on the bridge confirming me that it's the right one: えびす橋 (Ebisubashi).

After eating my first Takoyaki nearby the bridge I went on the bridge and it was easy to notice that it's a special spot. People meet there and take selfies, even TV teams sometimes run around. 

The view is just great: Big screens with commercials on both sites (quite often a never ending One Piece smartphone game one...), a giant wheel in nearby distance, long shopping areas in both directions of the bridge, a boat with people (you can buy a ticket if you like) driving on the Dotonbori River.

Also worth to mention: The big picture of the Guriko (ぐりこ) man! I was told that this character should motivate people to do sports. On the other hand the character is a creation from the Japanese sweets and candy company Glico. So the thought can be: If you increase your weight due to too much sweets, get motivated to do sports by the Guriko man!

Questions and a picture

During my first time there I also had an interesting experience. A few pupil from a school class with (obviously) their teacher came to me and asked me if I would answer them a few questions. I agreed.

They wanted to know my age, my country and my favorite food from Osaka, where I mentioned Takoyaki because I just tried it a few minutes before.

In the following they wanted to take a picture with me in middle of the pupils. First they made a photo with a phone from them and then they asked me for my phone and they also took a picture with my phone. They said goodbye and after checking the photo I found out that something went wrong, because it was black...

In the darkness

I'd also recommend to go there after the sunset which was in my case this September after 6 PM. The screens, the giant wheel and the lights in general seem to give that whole place an even better atmosphere.

Also during the evening time there are way more people around there. It's really filled. During the weekend there was also a girl band singing next the bridge so that people were cheering from the bridge and the other side of the river.

So there's a lot going on! Anyway, if you'll ever make it to Osaka, go to that place!

Hiking to the Nunobiki Falls in Kobe

During my this years stay in Japan I spent one day in Kobe and my main goal was to go up the mountains to have a view at the city and for seeing the waterfalls. And for some reason I made the hiking for getting back with the approaching sunset a bit harder for myself...

But from the start: From my stay in Osaka there was an easy train connection (Hanshin-Line) to get to Kobe, the sixth biggest city of Japan - right before Kyoto.

After leaving the station I needed to figure out in which direction I should go. So I just needed to know: In which direction do I get to the mountains? Luckily in Kobe are lots of maps placed on different positions, so if you get lost you'll find a way.

So my first stop was at the Ikuta Shrine which was on the way getting to the mountains. I also walked to the Kitano-Tenmangu shrine and had a first hill view at the city.

Then I continued walking until a saw a ropeway. Then I thought: 'Ok, you are close.' A nearby map at a really empty looking shopping mall confirmed me that. And more and more signs about Nunobiki Falls helped me running in the right direction - and also the river coming from the mountain of course.

Interestingly, I had to cross something like a bigger bus station, but after that my way up the hill started.

Next stop: Nunobiki Falls

So started hiking up the mountain. I followed the little stream coming from the hill. First, I encountered a few little falls before seeing the biggest waterfalls there: The Odaki Falls.

You're coming from the right of the stream going uphill before you cross a bridge seeing the Falls. There are luckily a few benches to sit and enjoy the view: It's truly a nice waterfall. I enjoyed sitting there for a while, absorbing the atmosphere, made some clips with my GoPro. But I wanted to continue hiking up the mountain.

If you continue walking up the mountain you'll arrive at an artificial lake - but before that you'll have an interesting view seeing the Odaki Falls with the bridge from many meters above.

Once you arrive at the lake you can go around for many more paths around the hills. But as the sunset was approaching I decided to go back to the city. While going back I got the idea of choosing an alternate path instead of following the river on the left side. I saw a bridge crossing the water and going up another hill.

It was a bit risky because you could already see that it was getting darker. I went up some kind of stairs up the hill. Some people were coming back and said that the didn't know how far this way would go and they decided to walk back. I was for some reason convinced that I would end up in the city again.


These stairs felt endless, I don't know how many, but it brought me up another hill coming to another path once the stairs ended. And then I went downhill again, not really sure where I would end up. I was only sure it should be somewhere in Kobe.

And I ended up on an apparently 'inofficial' path near some houses at the beginning of the Nunobiki Falls area where I started a few hours before.

After that I went to a ramen restaurant - regained my energy - before I got back to the train station heading back to my hostel in Osaka. It was my only day in Kobe during my Japan trip in 2016 and it was interesting. 

Starting with Japanese

When you start learning a new language it's really important that you have a connection with it. In terms of Japanese many people including me got the initial interest by watching anime.

It's not about just watching it - the interest for the language comes by understanding some words in subbed animes - it's probably with something easy like ありがとう (arigatou => thank you). Even some people who aren't interested in learning a language prefer watching anime with subtitle just because they like the way the language sounds. It's where the connection starts.

Another step for the interest in Japanese is that animes include music, especially the opening and ending themes. The lyrics are written on the screen while the music is running.

With the help of subs you can at least understand the text, but when you see the language in its written form it's still something where you have no idea how it works at the beginning. It's because it's simply too much at once. You are simply overwhelmed!

The easiest way would be to learn the Hiragana letters gradually with some important words you may have already collected while watching anime. Same goes for Katakana - because you'll notice the amount of foreign words for which they're used.

But how to learn these letters? Print out a chart of both sets and try to find some mnemonics! For example た looks similar like meaning: ta. Try to memorize these characters step by step and be consistent repeating them daily. Also try to build some words.

I'd recommend to have an deck with the Anki flashcards on your phone. The Android version is even a free one and you can have an account which is connected with the PC version. Such decks are free available to download.

And the following is also an interesting way of collecting vocabulary: Create your own deck where you collect your words in Hiragana. I'd start with easy stuff like nouns you can see around you.
Example: かがみ (kagami => mirror) or いす (isu ==> chair). Continue with adding more and more words you get from lists, from anime or even songs.

This is just an example how to start - but that's just the beginning of a long way...