The colors of traffic lights are, green, yellow and red, but in Japan, when referring to traffic lights, green is called blue. It is said that in ancient times in Japan the word for blue also encompassed green. Even now, Japanese refer to green as blue, as with “aoao to shita yasai” (fresh blue vegetables). Ways of expressing the date are also unique. In Japan a unique calendar is used that reflects the year of the current Emperor’s reign. At the same time, the Christian calendar is also used, but is written in order of year, month and day. For instance, it’s possible to write either Heisei 27 March 1, or 2015 March 1. Also easy to confuse are units of money. As there is no equivalent word for the unit “man” in English, “one man yen” is equivalent to ten thousand yen. Similarly “one okuen” is equivalent to100 million yen. “Over” and “under” are also easily confused. “18 sai ika wa nyuujou kinshi” could be incorrectly interpreted in English to mean that 18 year olds are allowed to enter, whereas it means that entry is not permitted in Japanese. When 18 year olds are not allowed in, this is expressed in English as “18 years and under are not allowed to enter.” To state that under 18s are not allowed in Japanese, you say, “18 sai miman wa nyuujou kinshi (Less 18 years are not allowed).” “18 sai ijou” could be incorrectly interpreted in English to mean 19 year olds and over, whereas it means 18 year olds and over in Japanese.