Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Lost in translation... Funny instances of "English" around Japan. (pt. 1)


As I spend time in Tokyo, both on the weekends when I get to spend the whole day travelling and also in the day-to-day life with work et al., I see lots of interesting English words, phrases, and sometimes whole paragraphs in a lot of different places. It looks like adding some English to pretty much anything adds a "coolness" factor of sorts. While this is something I appreciate (as it provides me with another chunk of information I should be able to process) sometimes the words are just garbled, random, or downright funny without intending to be. I will try to post some of what I personally see (and take a picture of) here over time. This is, in a way, the first episode...

I took this picture while wondering around in Shibuya which, if I haven't already said it and you don't already know, is home to the world's most crowded intersection. Everytime the traffic light for pedestrians turns green literally a sea of people move from one side to the other in the main intersection. This sign was in front of a wine bar right by, I believe the western exit, of the train station (渋谷駅). The unfortunate part of this bar is its name as you have probably seen (since it is written with huge letters) - Pee. Now, one might be tempted to say "May be this is from another language and it is pronounced differently" well, no. If you look at the Katakana which shows the reading it clearly says - "pi-i". There is even a little bottle with the word "Pee" on it in the sign...

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