Learning a foreign language is not, uh, easy. Japanese measure words are particularly vexing: where English mostly defers to a simple number, some measure word is required for all nouns in Japanese, from kings to cabbages - but which?
I thus chuckle evilly when questioned about groups of animals. Japanese has a single word: mure (群), whether fish or fowl, while the number of such English words could easily stock a museum. Take the crow, whose group is termed a “murder.”
According to Shimizu Mimoru, horticulturist at the botanical gardens adjoining Ninomaru Park, an impressive murder of crows has been appearing each evening. There is nothing unusual about this, he says, especially in mid-winter when crows leave the mountains; crows murder in the evening before flying off to a communal roosting spot, presumably to hatch their next murder. If you would like to photograph the castle surrounded by a murder, early dusk is best. - William