- The outdoor beckons. North Face takes kids trekking in Hokkaido
- Exciting events happening in Yokohama
- The Salesman
- RICHARD THE STORK
- Logan 2017
- The Light Between Oceans
- HAROLD AND LILLIAN: A HOLLYWOOD LOVE STORY
- WHAT A WONDERFUL FAMILY 2 (KAZOKU WA TSURAI YO)
- Nikuon June 3 & 4
- Curry Festival 2017 at Yokosuka, June 3 & 4
- Stop by for beer and German sausages at Hibiya Park Oktoberfest 2017 (June 2-11)
- Japan’s next generation bicycle tires don’t need air
- Say Mother’s Day with a European style floral arrangement
- Award-winning short film ‘The Sad Monk’ in theatres
- Tokyo U-14 International Youth Football Tournament 2017
- Picnic Cafe Wangan Zoo Adventure
- Beauty and the Beast 2017
- Food delivery at hanami spots
- Fun events at Huis Ten Bosch This Spring!
Decorative English
“I’m standing between Love & Peace and Hugme”. This was the position of a patient who got lost on her way to my office. What a lovely place to be! I knew exactly where she was and was able to guide her in. Situated on either side of a small cross roads in Daikanyama, Love & Peace is a café, and Hugme a shop that sells push-chairs (strollers).
The Japanese have a marvellous facility for thinking up intriguing names in English. It should be realised these are really for decoration and do not attempt necessarily to be correct. Thus, it is pointless for foreigners to feel superior and point out spelling or grammatical mistakes. Sometimes a presumably unintended error makes the slogan or the product all the more appealing. Ebisu beer used to say on the can ‘Brings you a good luck’. Drinking this tasty beer while contemplating the writing – it meant something. Then some pedant pointed out this was ungrammatical so it was changed to ‘Brings you good luck’ – which is so bland it is virtually meaningless. My favourite for an inspirational slogan is the well-known ‘Impossible is nothing’ (Adidas). Again, if it said ‘Nothing is impossible’ it would be just a cliché.
Within a 10-minute stroll from my office are to be found many examples of what I call Decorative English. Three enigmatically named clothing shops come to mind, being called Post Party Depression, Cor Blimey! and Dry Bones, respectively. Then there is Baby Hip (babies’ clothing). Sometimes the names are not what you think. Venus Lash – a beauty parlour where women can be fi tted with alluring artifi cial eye-lashes. And how about Love Girls Market – a women’s clothing store which is merely a direct translation of the Japanese: market which girls love? Sometimes they get it wrong, as with a beauty parlour called Slug. And sometimes it’s splendidly appropriate: a girl’s T-shirt with the word Milky emblazoned on the front. Yes, indeed. And what about Potavel? You would never have guessed it’s a shop which sells bicycles for pottering and travel!
The little shops themselves are invariably charming and immaculately presented, with one or two (or more) beautifully attired young lady assistants. A stone’s throw from the clinic is a candidate for the title of the world’s smallest shop. It’s about 1 x 3.5 meters and sells, as far as I can see, women’s ‘accessories’ – mainly rubber cords in every colour for tying up your hair. If a customer enters the shop the assistant has to stand outside.
Dr Gabriel Symonds is the director of the Tokyo British Clinic. Full medical services are available including out-of-hours cover. Tel: 03-5458 6099. www.tokyobritishclinic.com
