Japangrish / Engrish

When people who don`t speak a language try to speak a language, the results are often funny. This phenomenon can occur across any two languages in any country in the world. In this case, it`s the Japanese garbling English, and the end result is often called Japangrish or Engrish. It`s kind of making fun, but heck, not in a mean way.

Most of the stuff here is accordingly written with intent to amuse. Maybe it fails! Gosh, who knows. It`s my sense of humor. If you like it, solidarity. If not, c`est la vie.

Strange Japan

Architecture

People

Toys / Games

Snacks / Drinks

Ads / Signs

#1 Fire Huge Employees	#2 Eat my House

The company fired huge employees.	Every day I eat my house for lunch.
Friend Bakery	Marge Warning

A tasty nibble I snacked upon in Kyushu- though probably available all over Japan. Just smack your surf-board sleeping friend over the head and bake her into a biscuit.	A sign at the entrance to a car park. You have been warned.

Not many banana	Put the Shout From a Soul

Raising kids is tough. Ask any parent and they’ll talk to you for hours about the hundreds of daily decisions they face in naturing and nurturing their kids into healthy little human robots. Apple pie or chocolate pie? Stroller or back-buggy?	This guy was chilling in the most lackadaisical manner, almost as if he knew I was trying to get a shot of his back. Wow, that is cool. Look at his back, what a great message.

Step into your Virgin Grave	Dinning Bar

I know everybody out there longs for a Virgin Grave. Who would want a used grave, a second-hand grave? Chu-ko Haka, as they say in Japanese. How much better for a Playfull Mind is a brand-new Virgin Grave	I found the DINNING BAR in ultra-hip Shimo-Kitazawa a few weeks ago, and ever since have been scouring the net for what it could possibly be. My first thought was that it MUST be connected with the word ‘din’.

Ladies for ladies, Bears for men	The Naked Doctor

On toilet doors you sometimes see fancy graphics, stylized versions of the little dude and chick that tell us which little room to go in to do our business.	The Japanese health system caters to each and every sub-section of society; Akihabara maids, cos-players, otakus, and the naked.

Superior Japanese Knives	Please do it at the beach

Sometimes you just have to know where the knives be at. Sometimes you’ll be cooking a goose, and need to trim that darn bird. Othertimes you need to sew your pants up and you need a darn knife to cut a thread.	I’m glad as it’s about time- the number of people I’ve seen hemi-sliced like bacon rashers by those executioner-style train doors is more than I care to think about.

Coppertone Bikini Girls	The ‘other’ Colonel Sanders

Coppertone have gone nuts recently in Shibuya station, plastering at least the Yamanote line north-bound platform with pictures of bikini-clad women (and little girls) with a dog biting their butts. When I first saw this I did a double-take, turned the other way, saw a similar ad where a little girl was getting her butt bit, and started to wonder if the whole thing wasn’t just a bit too weird for its own good.	His name is Koichi Sanders. He and the Colonel were divided at birth, despite not sharing a common mother nor being born in the same country or year.

Bruce, Cameron, Arnold, and Tommy	Ikebukuro Excavation Card

Hollywood actors often do ads in Japan that they would never do back in the US. I don’t know why really, though I suspect it’s because that kind of ‘selling out’ in America is more likely to negatively impact their status than it would here.	On my way through Ikebukuro the other day I spotted this poster for an Ikebukuro ‘excavation card’.