Do you believe superstitions ?
There are a lot of superstitions in Japan.
For example...
"When you see a funeral car, hide your thummbs."
"If you cut your nails at night, you will not be with your parents when they die."
"Hide your bellybutton if you hear thunder, or the god of thunder will steal your bellybutton."
And so on.
There are reasons for each superstitions.
"When you see a funeral car, hide your thummbs."
There is a dead body in the funeral car.
To point at it is bad manners.
"If you cut your nails at night, you will not be with your parents when they die."
Long ago, there wasn't enough light.
People use candles.
if they cut their nails in the dark, they might have cut themselves and can't work.
"Hide your bellybutton if you hear thunder, or the god of thunder will steal your bellybutton."
If it thunders, it will rain hard also.
And the temperature will drop rapidly.
So, you have to wear warm clothes as to not catch a cold.
I understand these.
However, I have one superstition that I can't understand.
"You can eat food off the floor if it's less than three seconds"
We call it "the three second rule".
Nobody does it now.
I think that it means "Don't cast away foods".
However, I can't understand why it became popular.
If you find a child doing it in Japan, please don't think "Japanese are crazy!"