So, I just watched NMB to Manabukun #87 and I found some interesting wordplay. This special episode is about measuring NMB48 members’ academic ability. It’s started with problem about National Language as you can see on the image above, which can be translated into “Write a sentence by using four-character idiom 一日千秋.” The literal meaning for this four-character idiom is “one day, a thousands autumns,” but here’s the meaning according to JapanDict.
一日千秋
ichijitsu senshuu
(waiting) impatiently, (spending) many a weary day, each moment seeming like an eternity
A normal answer would be:
結婚する日を一日千秋の思いで待っているからコンパに行く
kekkon suru hi o ichijitsu senshuu no omoi de matte iru kara KONPA ni iku
I can hardly wait the day I get married, so I go to konpa
As you can see above, an answer from Wada-chan (unfortunately, it’s not members’ answer) really caught my mind. She used it as two parts 来月の一日 which means “1st of next month” and 千秋楽 which means “final day of a tournament.” We still can see 一日千秋 is there, but since Japanese writing system doesn’t use space to separate words, in this sentence, it’s not the idiomatic phrase, but simply just regular word. Furthermore 一日 in her sentence is read “tsuitachi” while in 一日千秋 is read “ichijitsu.”
Aknahaman 