Lefty Loosey, Righty Tightey

Our blender/ smoothie maker at home is kinda weird.

The bottom part screws on counter-clockwise (anti-clockwise for my British friends), and then screws off clockwise…which is the exact opposite of how my peanut butter jar opens. When I try to get the bottom off, I usually end up tightening it more.

That’s not important.

What’s important are these two words:

時計方向
tokei houkou
clockwise (literally “clock direction”)

反時計方向
hantokei houkou
counter-clockwise

The “han” character of “hantokei” means “reverse, opposite, anti-”

Unfortunately, I can’t find any videos to demonstrate “clockwise” or “counter-clockwise,” so here’s a video from Curio (circa 1990-something). Used as the 3rd Closing Ending Song for the Rurouni Kenshin anime series:

None of my Japanese friends under the age of 30 know who Curio is. My wife is cousins with the bass player…who happens to be a lefty…kinda on the same theme as today’s post, I guess.

UPDATE -
Since I kinda already introduced this, I’ll tell you the J’go for it:

右利き
migikiki
right-handed

左利き
hidarikiki
left-handed

Sore ja.