Did you know? : Pedestrian Traffic Light

This is a pedestrian Traffic light. Japanese call the Red "Akai" which means Red, but they call the Green "Ao" which is translated in to "Blue". Normally the Color Green is called "Midori" but not for the traffic light.

Therefore, is always a little confusing at first, when you are told to cross the street when the traffic light is Blue.

The reason behind it, is that until the 1185 D.C. only the word "Ao" (blue) was used. There was no word for "Green". Still today, the same concept is applied to some Vegetables and Fruit, like Apples...the same doesn't happen on the other hand for other stuff like Cars and T-shirts, for which the word Midori "Green" is then used.

I don't know exactly how this happened to be applied to traffic light, since are quite modern, but foreigners still often jokes about it...

By the way, you might wonder what the Scale next to the traffic light is...that one indicates how long you need to wait, before the traffic light turns Green..*ups*...Blue....