Since returning from Japan recently I have had a yen for sushi. I mean real Japanese sushi, as described in my article from Sept. 14, 2022. This is most often a small oval shaped rice dollop topped with thinly sliced raw fish.
We ate a fair amount of sushi in Japan, both in restaurants and homes. Patti and I were privileged to be invited for a meal into four different homes/apartments over the 3 weeks we were in the Osaka area. In Japanese culture, people often meet at a restaurant for a meal rather than in their homes.
Yen indicates a strong or intense craving. The word is derived from Cantonese. In the early 1900s an intense yearning for opium was yin-yahn. Yin means opium and yahn means craving. As this description moved into English, the Chinese syllables became translated as yen-yen.
The English yen was initially connected with a craving for opium. But by 1919 it began to be used as any intense desire or longing for anything.
The word yen is also the English word for Japanese currency. It comes from a mispronunciation of the Japanese word en, the word for a circle. En derives from the Chinese word for round coin or round object, yuan.
In 1871, the Japanese government adopted en as the basic unit of currency in the monetary reforms of the Meiji Restoration. The yen replaced 300 years of using clan notes, paper money issued by feudal lords. The yen is the third most traded currency on the foreign exchange market, behind the US dollar and the euro.
The Japanese yen has declined in price to the major currencies recently. As interest rates rise in the Western world, investors sell yen and buy US dollars to get a better return on their investments in currency. The Japanese interest rate is still a paltry minus 0.10%. Canadians can buy 1,000 yen for about $950 CDN dollars.
Just a few years ago it would have cost $1,050 to purchase 1,000 Japanese yen. With this current exchange rate, it is a good time to visit Japan.
Today the English word yen has more casual connotations. Many people use yen as a “hankering” for something. I have a yen for a nice, rare steak. Sometimes yen can even work as a verb. You can yen for pancakes or truffles.
You can even yen for a time when you yenned for potato chips, probably in your youth when you were not so concerned about health issues and good eating habits. Yen can also mean a strong but often sudden and temporary desire. She had a yen for chocolate cake.
After this latest trip to Japan, I have a yen to visit again, even with the long hours spent flying and waiting in airports to get there. It took us 31 hours to arrive back at home in Moose Jaw from our rental unit in Osaka.
It was one long day, so to speak. I’m sure we’ll get there frequently to visit our new relatives as our son has married a Japanese national. Plus, we have a yen to visit Osaka in 2025 for the World’s Fair.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
