The United States may have Pi Day, but Japan has Ear Day, Eye Day, Teeth Day, and even Good Couple's Day. These are all recent phenomena, of course, and while Good Couple's Day actually is used as a marketing ploy, the other days' nicknames are used as educational tools.

First of all, how are the actual dates for these days decided? Well, Japan uses kanji, which originated in China. Since, however, Japan took kanji from China, Japanese language has applied several different readings to a single kanji. The kanji for numbers are no exceptions. The kanji for "3" can be read as "san," "mi," and maybe other ways that I may not even know of. But if "mi" is one of the readings, then March 3rd can be read as "mimi," which is the Japanese word for ear. Thus March 3rd is Ear Day. Teeth Day is June 4th, because one of the readings for the number "6" is "mu" and one of the readings for the number "4" is "shi," and mushiba means cavity. Okay, so maybe instead of Teeth Day it's Cavity Prevention Day, but I'm sure the general idea is clear enough. Also, I think October 10 is Eye Day because the "1s" and "0s" look like a pair of eyebrows and eyes. On these days, schools do things such as encourage the students to bring toothbrushes to school and everyone brushes their teeth together after lunch (which usually does not happen). Also, doctors will issue notices such as "get your eyes checked."

Good couples day is April 22nd because another reading for the number "4" is "yo," and a reading for the number "2" is "fu." The Japanese word yoi means good, and fufu is man and woman together as a couple. On this day movie theaters make ticket prices very cheap, but only for couples fifty and older, which I think gets a lot of people to the movies. But having April 22nd as Earth Day isn't a bad idea, either.