Japanese habit/custom ~31~ Goro awase

23rd, February is the day of Mt. Fuji.
On this column, I explain why it is the day of Mt. Fuji.
I need explanation.
In Japanese, the date is written "2.23". In Japanese, people write
the month at first. You write the date next.
And, in Japanese, we have the special way to read number, called Goroawase.

In Japanese, we pronounce the number like below.
1 ichi
2 ni
3 san
4 shi
5 go
6 roku
7 nana or shichi
 8 hachi
9 kyuu
10 jyuu
If you are Japanese learner, you would learn the pronunciation like above.
But there are the other pronunciation.
For example,
1  =  i   (it is shorten word of "ichi")
2  =  fu  (when you count the date, you say futsuka . it means 2 days. fu is first syllable of "futsuka")
3  =  mi
4 = yo
7 = na
9 = ku
You usually don't pronounce like above when you count number.
This pronunciation is confusing, so I guess Japanese teachers don't teachi
these pronunciation to beginners.
 Why 2,23 is the day of  Mt.Fuji ? We say Mt. Fuji "Fuji san" in Japanese.
2= fu 2= ji 3= san
(When you write 2 by Kanji, you write "二". And you can pronounce 二 "ji")
So, 2,23 is the day of Mt. Fuji.

We sometimes change the pronunciation when you read the number.
It is called "Goroawase". When you make Goroawase, people make a word so that
it makes sense. It is one of the way when you remember the number.
Well, when I was in school, I had to memorize the year, 794 at the Japanese history class.
Heian period began at the year. (Heian period is famous because Kyoto flourished so much
at that age)
There is very famous Goroawase. Almost all Japanese would know that.
We used to say Na(7) Ku(9) Yo(4) uguisu(a bush warbler) Heian kyou(the name of
palace of Heian period).
Nakuyo means, "sing". So student remember the year of 794 with the image of
a bush warbler singing.
We find many goroawase in our daily life. Company or shop offer us the phone number
by showing the goroawase.