Many readers, I suppose, are familiar with the sports stadium in Nishinomiya city, Hyogo Prefecture, known as 甲子園球場 (Kōshien kyūjo, Koshien Stadium). In addition to being the home field of the Hanshin Tigers pro baseball team, it also hosts the spring and summer national high school baseball tournaments.
It was only recently that I stumbled upon the source of the stadium's peculiar name, which is written with characters that appeared to mean "shell child garden." Kōshi refers to the year 1924, which was when 阪神電鉄 (Hanshin Dentetsu, Hanshin Electric Railways Co.) opened the eponymous train station adjacent to a suburban residential development. So the station's (and stadium's) name actually means "1924 Garden."
More specifically, the 甲子 (kōshi) in Kōshien refers to ki-no-e ne, the year of the "wood rat," which happens to be the first year in the Chinese sexagenary (60-year) cycle consisting of five heavenly stems (wood, fire, earth, metal and water) and 12 earthly branches. By the same token the current year, 2015, is 乙未 (ki-no-to hitsuji, or "year of the wood sheep." Both 甲 (kō) and 乙 (otsu) are used alternatively to symbolize wood.