What one letter can change

Snapped this at the Mitaka Station last weekend (the night my father was here) – it’s an ad for a massage place called “Body Factory”. It follows the usual fare of Japanese pamphlets where about 90% of the text is in Japanese with a few things in English sprinkled around. Another thing it unfortunately shares with many other pamphlets around here is the fact that it is off by a single letter. Normally this would make for something completely nonsensical but in this case, the new word somehow works in this context, albeit in a very wrong sounding way…

L versus R strikes again in Japanese English

Unfortunately these keep showing up. One would think a spell-checker would pick up most of these but they are still there… The first one is from the supermarket. It used to be wrapped around an apple. The second one is from a restaurant’s menu by a lake near Mount Fuji. Spot the problem? I don’t know if it is overcompensation in this case but this is something that happens much more rarely – an L for an R… Of course this one would not be caught by a simple spell-checker but something a bit smarter which aims to find L <-> R substitutions could pick it up.

Ah the researcher in me is flaring up again :P

“A member of an organization”

File this one under “so close, yet so far away” category… I took this picture of a hairdresser’s sign close to my work. One can kind of ignore the “Good sense and professional technic” tagline based on poor/awkward choice of words but the “A member of an organization” is simply baffling. Which organization? Any organization? It is not even a matter of picking the right article here since “A member of the organization” would still carry a vagueness as to which organization we are talking about here.

I have done some digging on “Zenbikanren” but came up with nothing. Now I am really curious…

Unfortunate model name for a car

I should be finishing up something else but I realized I have not posted anything since Wednesday… Well, that simply won’t do so here it goes…

I dived into the stack of random pictures I took and came up with this one which I think you might find to be interesting.  This tiny “car/truck” is produced by Daihatsu and its model name, as proudly shown in the front of the vehicle is “Midget II”. Needless to say if they were to export this model to, say, the US, they might have to rebrand the vehicle (which would not be the first time of course). Car manufacturers, and I don’t mean just the Japanese ones, regularly use different names for models that would be sold in different regions of the world. It’s just I have never seen quite a name like this being used in any region.

It turns out there was a “Midget” as well – which was the original model. Wikipedia has a lot of information on the models with more pictures.

"Ill Store" in Tokyo

Really? Ill store? I mean I have seen lots of stores with English names in Japan but this one easily takes the cake. This gem of a find comes from Harajuku and sells "Extra Dope Wear Select" - basically your typical "rapper style" outwear. It was just too good to pass and not take a picture...

 

Oh, I will be taking a trip to Korea this weekend. Pictures and impressions next week :)

Another instance of "funny English"

See, this happens a lot. There are no articles like "a" or "the" in Japanese so when someone whose native language is Japanese is learning English, this concept is potentially one of the harder concepts to grasp. Unfortunately this does not happen just with individuals. On the left is a picture I snapped a few minutes ago of my shaving cream which seems to have the same problem making it sound like you can shake a can (as opposed to "the can"), any can, well and that's all you need to do...

When a single word breaks the whole sentence...

This is from a menu in a very nice Italian restaurant in 池袋 (ikebukuro). I think this theme shows up quite a bit in a lot of places like menus in restaurants, general packaging, etc: They add a sentence or two in English even if the rest of the document is completely in Japanese and unfortunately more often than not a misplaced word or two shows up in there. It is pretty easy to pick up what that word is here :)

Ever bought a "mystery package" ?

So this seems to be a popular trend in Japan in quite a few different types of stores including clothing, accessories and others. These stores offer "mystery bags" - each one costing one half or one third (at least that is what they claim) of the actual cost of items in them. Of course the catch is you don't know what you are getting but I guess there are enough people that try it out. It is an interesting business idea when one thinks about it - the consumer (presumably) saves money and you get to get rid of slow moving items while making small (presumably) profits. This particular example is from LonLon around Kichijouji Station (吉祥寺駅). The package also comes complete with a.. hmm... strange? poem in English:

Everytime I pass by, I stop by.

Everytime I look here, I find it.

Everyday I'm happy.

Inside are little pieces of happiness.

Even when I'm returning,

I'm smiling.

Rainy season is coming

I know it has been a few days since I last wrote - I have been pretty busy getting work under control again. The weather has been pretty good contrary to the weather reports constantly mentioning rain. The rainy season, which is supposed to last a month, is going to start soon after all but so far so good with the sun. I think this , well these few days until the rain comes, is probably the best time of the year to be in Tokyo in terms of the weather...

I took this picture (which has nothing to do with the weather) on Sunday at Kichijouji (吉祥寺). It is yet another example of something that seems to get lost in translation. Just read the English labels on the box ;)

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...