Wierd and Whacky Japan...

Rezz · January 20, 2004

I hope we can unearth some real funny and/or wierd stuff in this thread...

I'll start:

Japanese Product Names

Hitachi Wooo, Asse Chocolate (no joke!), T+A Curry, J-Faerie... the list goes ooooooooooon...

Who hasn't laughed at some of the product names in Japan? Sometimes it seems that the names are decided by monkey on crack, but in actual fact, alot of thought and planning is put into these names... well most of them!

One of my students yesterday told me she works at "Mister Donuts". Mr Donuts is all over Japan, selling donuts and coffee (and other things) in the same vein as McDonalds. Anyway, having been there dozens of times, one of my favourite donuts is the "Old Fashion".

"Thats a pretty normal name" you might say. But then theres the "Choco Fashion"!!!

Yep, to keep with the "---- Fashioned" name tag, a Choco Fashion donut is an "Old Fashion" donut dipped half-way in chocolate.

I told the Mr Donuts student that "Choco Fashion" didn't really roll off the tongue so well, and that it sounded quite funny to say, but she defended the name by saying "But Japanese people can understand 'Choco'!".... rrrrrrrrright.:looney:

I left it at that!

Fire away with more guys!

Demon Dave · January 20, 2004

Don't know if it's a Yamanashi only thing, we've got a recycle shop (2nd hand/used whatever) and it's name is

Hard Off

:)

The hard bit meaning hardware since they specialize in buying/selling computers, stereos etc. Their off branch for domestic and household products is called

OFF HOUSE!

Then we have a clothes store called ON LIMITS - clearly the signwriter/owner got confused with NO LIMITS!

There's so many more!

Demon Dave · January 20, 2004

The worst name for a car...ever:

The Diahatsu Naked

:)

And people actually buy it. And then drive it!

Evo_Lee · January 21, 2004

Guys you do realise this thread will be mostly dominated by our comments, and perhaps most of it isn't amusing to us no more...

None the less I thinks the amusing ones are the magazine names which escapes me at the moment. Or how they name their drinks, most talked about are Calpis or Pocari Sweat if you only ask a mate if they want one.

Dave it's Naked because it is after all Naked...others are Toyota Publica (very old name for the Starlet), Nissan Cherry/Violet/Figaro/Pao, Mazda Bongo/Clef/Scrum, Honda Fit, Subaru REX (which isn't the REX we know it ), Mitsubishi Bravo (only a kei van?!?) and Isuzu Bighorn. All of which have a meaning I'm sure to why they are named this way . But speaking of weird the Will cars made by Toyota are by far the weirdiest.

Rezz · January 21, 2004

None the less I thinks the amusing ones are the magazine names which escapes me at the moment.

Theres one magazine name that amused me... Tamago Club.

Tamago (egg) Club: ...for pregnant ladies obviously!:looney:

Demon Dave · January 21, 2004

Hehehe. The Mitsubishi Bongo Wagon. The wife actually wanted to buy one, but I refused to drive anything called a Bongo. So, we got a Cube instead!

DaiOni · January 22, 2004

Isn't there a car called 'nude' as well? Seems vaguely familiar (maybe I'm thinking of the naked). Joy Pop and Toppo BJ always get a sAfrican American out of me too.

best chocolate: creamy collon/chocolate collon

Rezz · January 22, 2004

Heh, heh... speaking about "nude", theres a men's personal grooming line-up called "Nude" or "Nudy". Can be found at any Mini-stop or Lawson...

Zushi · January 24, 2004

There are lots of funny sounding names in Japan. I lived there for awhile. The car parts store Parts Off, like the choco fashion, doesn't really roll of the tounge. Heh. Also, Toyota makes one of those new shuttle type vans that is called an Emina. Thats one of my favorite's...now they have to know what an enima is....at least I hope they do. I cane name off lots but this should suffice for now...haha.

Rezz · January 24, 2004

I think the Nightclub/Bar names are pretty strange sometimes too. One's like "Bar, Isn't it?" in Osaka, and "Little Feet" in Kobe (Little Feet is a bar situated in a 1st floor basement, and the name of the place comes from the big perspex closed off area they have with about 5 or 6 penguins that live in there... little feet is referring to the penguins flippers obviously!) I'll get photos of it if I can sometime...

C-Red · January 25, 2004

My favourite was FISMY, either that or Cream Collon.

Jash

DaiOni · January 25, 2004

"Bar, Isn't it?" in Osaka"

Had a very wild night there in 03!

pretty crap bar, overall though.

I like the HUB chain of "british" pubs - only because they sell VB and beer in a yardglass!

C-Red · January 25, 2004

We went to American Beauty in Osaka. Pretty Amusing - you'd be struggling to fit more than about 10 Gaijins in. When we were there albeit on a Tuesday Night there was only a emaciated looking Euro, a ladyboy and a barman.

Jash

summoner · January 25, 2004

1 of the diahatsu's names in swedish translates to part of the female anatomy

Rezz · January 25, 2004

I just did a 5 min search around my apartment for some funny stuff, heres what I got:

On a box of tissues...

...and on a porcelain bowl...

Do I get wild on instinct? Errr, yeah.... sometimes!:looney:

Demon Dave · January 25, 2004

for cars, Toyota's 4WD's have to be the funniest. There's nothing wrong with their names. But for some reason, Toyota feel that have to write some completely meaningless words on the spare tyre cover. Can make for amusing reading when sat at the lights...

Rezz · January 25, 2004

for cars, Toyota's 4WD's have to be the funniest. There's nothing wrong with their names. But for some reason, Toyota feel that have to write some completely meaningless words on the spare tyre cover. Can make for amusing reading when sat at the lights...

Yes, theres a site somewhere with heaps of photos of those spare wheel covers... bollocks, the lot of it

One of the reasons why they have those paragraphs of meaningless English is because of symmetry. Quite a few Japanese actually think English words are cool, and to have the brand name with a nice 3 or 4 line paragraph or sentence along with it (which doesn't make any sense) "looks" really good. The avarage Japanese can't understand what they're getting at in the paragraph, so it's all good! Thats what I was told anyway...

Rezz · January 26, 2004

>summoner: I noticed you got Doumo kun in your avatar... here you go:

January 27, 2004

Yes, theres a site somewhere with heaps of photos of those spare wheel covers... bollocks, the lot of it

That would be http://www.engrish.com

Here's another site that I frequent a lot, lots of news and a BBS where all the gaijin can bitch about Japan. Yeah the URL makes it look like a porn site but it isn't.

http://www.****edgaijin.com *edit* the swear-filter removed f u c k from the address.

January 27, 2004

aahah good stuff rezz

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