is an especially common form of Japanese wordplay, wherein
homophonous words are associated with a given series of letters, numbers or symbols, in order to associate a new meaning with that series. The new words can be used to express a
superstition about certain letters or numbers. More commonly, however,
goroawase is used as a
mnemonic technique, especially in the memorization of numbers such as dates in history, scientific
constants and
phone numbers. •
29 can be read as "ni-ku" (), meaning "
meat".
Restaurants and
grocery stores have special offers on the 29th day of every month. •
39 can be read as "san-kyū", referring to "thank you" in English, or as "mi-ku", referring to
Hatsune Miku. •
44 can be read as "yo-yo" and is thus a common slang term in the international competitive
yo-yo community, which has a strong Japanese presence. •
56, read as "ko-ro", is used in , an alternate spelling of the verb "korosu" (, to kill) used on the internet to avoid
wordfilters. •
89 can be read as "ha-gu", which refers to "hug" in English. August 9th is National Hug Day in Japan. •
109 can be read as "tō-kyū". The
109 department store in
Shibuya,
Tokyo is often read as "ichi-maru-kyū", but the number 109 was selected as the alternative reading "tō-kyū" is a reference to
Tokyu Corporation, the group that owns the building. •
230 can be read as "fu-mi-o", the given name of former Japanese prime minister
Fumio Kishida. He uses this number in his Twitter handle "kishida230". •
428 can be read as "shi-bu-ya", referring to the
Shibuya area of
Tokyo, and "yo-tsu-ba" () meaning
four-leaf clover. •
526 can be read as "ko-ji-ro" in reference to
Sasaki Kojiro, a samurai from the Edo period. •
634 can be read as "mu-sa-shi". The
Tokyo Skytree's height was intentionally set at 634 meters so it would sound like
Musashi Province, an old name for the area in which the building stands. •
801 can be read as "ya-o-i" or
yaoi, a genre of homoerotic
manga typically aimed at women. •
893 can be read as "ya-ku-za" () or "
yakuza". It is traditionally a bad omen for a student to receive this candidate number for an
exam. •
1492, the year of
Columbus' first voyage to America, can be read as "i-yo-ku-ni" and appended with "ga mieta" to form the phrase "Alright! I can see land!" (). Additionally, "i-yo-ku-ni" itself could simply be interpreted as "It's a good country" (). The alternative reading "i-shi-ku-ni" is also used to memorize the year, though it is not typically associated with a particular meaning. •
4649 can be read as "yo-ro-shi-ku" (), meaning "best regards". •
18782 + 18782 = 37564 can be read as "i-ya-na-ya-tsu + i-ya-na-ya-tsu = mi-na-go-ro-shi" . •
3.14159265, the first nine digits of
pi, can be read as "san-i-shi-i-ko-ku-ni-mu-kō" (), meaning "an obstetrician faces towards a foreign country". ==Dajare==