weather forecasting

When I was little, the neighborhood kids and I followed an ancient, kids-only tradition for forecasting the next day's weather. We would loosen the shoes or sandals on our feet, and kick one of the pair into the air. If the shoe landed right-side up, we knew that tomorrow would be nice and sunny. If it landed upside down, it was a sign of bad weather looming on the horizon. If it landed on its side, we had to prepare ourselves for a mixture of good and bad weather.

Those forecasts were so much easier to understand than the highly sophisticated weather forecasts I hear on the news these days. And frankly, I don't think the shoe-forecast method was wrong any more often than the current scientific method. I really don't.
(The writing on the etegami says otenki uranai, which basically means "a trick for prophesying the weather.")

illustration friday (old-fashioned)

For this week's IF challenge, I chose this etegami depicting geta (traditional wooden clogs) from my Japanese proverbs series. The accompanying words mean [There's no knowing the outcome] until it's time to put your geta back on. The saying has its roots in the unpredictability of Go matches. Go is "an ancient board game for two players that is noted for being rich in strategy despite its simple rules." (Wikipedia). Hence, you never know the final outcome till the very end, when it's time to put your shoes back on and go home. Another traditional touch in this picture is that the person belonging to the feet is wearing indigo-dyed samue, the traditional (=old-fashioned) working clothes of Japanese artisans.

I've attached more "old-fashioned" footwear etegami with proverbs below. The first two show waraji (cheap sandals made from straw rope), and the next two show zouri (thonged sandals, made of better material, and more fashionable, than waraji)

1. To wear two pairs of waraji (one person doing two jobs or fulfilling two roles).
2. Find yourself a wife that is older than you, even if you have to wear waraji made from metal. (ie: Metal waraji, if there were such a thing, might make walking difficult but would not quickly wear out. A woman who is a year or more older than her husband has great potential for making a good wife, making it worth a long and difficult search for her.)
3 & 4. To screw up just as you're putting on your zouri. (No matter how well things are going at first, you can ruin all previous success by screwing up at the very end.)