On Nov. 9, the new 現代用語の 基礎知識 (Gendai Yōgo no Kiso Chishiki) went on sale. Its "official" English name as appears on the cover is "The 2018 Year Book of the Contemporary Society" — although in this writer's opinion its Japanese name, directly translated, is something like "The Basic Knowledge of Contemporary Terms."

The book's 1948 edition came out in autumn of 1947, and this year publisher Jiyukokuminsha is celebrating its 70th birthday with a special cover design. Superimposed over a gold 結び切り (musubikiri, celebratory cord) are the characters for 言葉 (kotoba, word) written using the ancient style called 大篆 (daiten, great seal), from China's Bronze Age. If it's intended to suggest the book is a work of great antiquity, then so am I.

Alas, the little store in my neighborhood where I'd regularly purchased the book for the past 30 years or so closed its doors, and is now a grooming salon for dogs. And since at 1,382 pages it's a weighty tome indeed, I decided to ask Amazon Japan to ship it to my house, with ¥2,750 deducted from my credit card. At a slightly higher price, the book is available in a B5 size version with large print.