Happy New Year ! ☺️ I hope your life will be full of surprise and joy in the new year that’s about to begin. May You be blessed with everything you want in life.🌏💖
The year 2019 🐗 is the year of the wild bore, the last animal of the Chinese zodiac. It is "the 31st year of Heisei (平成）" in the Japanese calendar. Although we use Western calendar in our daily lives, it is still very common to count years with a specific name of the era related to an Emperor.
Please look at the title and a date on Nara news paper below.
You can find both are written;
Japanese era: 平成30年 (the 30th year of Heisei)
Western year: 2018
It is a special year for us, since we are going to welcome a new "era (period)" this year. Heisei Emperor (Akihito) is going to abdicate at the end of April, and a new era is going to start from May with a new Emperor, today's Crown Prince Naruhito. We are not sure what will be the name of the new era yet. Changing of the era is something big, and we have special memories related to the era.
I was born in the Showa era： 昭和（1926-1989):
The 64th year of Showa = the 1st year of Heisei.
Showa is the time with World War II and the timing of rapid economic growth, nostalgic and still very-family oriented time.
Heisei era started with the end of the Cold War, followed by the burst of Japan’s economic bubble. start of digital age. 2 massive Earthquakes, and many natural disasters but no wars. etc.
I had an honor to meet Crown Prince in the Imperial Palace in Tokyo last year. He had very clear and strong eye contact and see people's eyes straight. I was almost overwhelmed by his presence. Personally, I got very positive impression from Prince Naruhito, our next Emperor.
We all will see how the new era is going to be..!!
