It's that Day Again and Again

Happy Groundhog Day to people in the U.S. for whom it it is still February 2nd. To-day is already February 3rd here in Japan. I watched the 1993 movie once again last night. It's called 恋はデジャ・ブ, Koiwa deja vu or "Love is Deja Vu" because most people haven't heard of the holiday in Japan. Of course, the holiday wasn't well known in the U.S. before the movie came out and that was part of the fun of the title. But it's pretty typical for an alternate foreign title to be unimaginative.

I told many classrooms about the holiday last week. Part of the process is explaining exactly what a groundhog is. The animal's name in Japanese is just woodchuck rendered in katakana, Japanese characters, and none of the students have heard of that either, though one teacher remembered an old anime featuring a woodchuck. I drew pictures of the animal and showed video of the Punxsutawny event. One group of students was for some reason so disturbed by the existence of an animal there's no Japanese word for that they continued trying to insist it was a hamster, bear, or squirrel.

I really enjoyed watching the movie again though I fell asleep during it. I finished it this morning. It never gets old, a surprising thing for a movie so repetitive.

X Sonnet #1917: Groundhog Day Edition

Emerging late, the seer peers about.
The sheen of snow could blind an aging bat.
But darkness shows the husky rodent's route.
A length of cold, he tells the silken hat.
From out the hole, the marmot blinks at dawn.
The gleaming white of frost conceals his van.
His body's shade precedes his body gone.
"Extended winter," claims the furry man.
The sun arose behind the rising runt.
A league of pretty snow beset his eyes.
In little time, for darkness does he hunt.
"The season lingers late," he harshly cries.
They call him hog who dwells about the ground.
Forever shall he live another round.