It's a (Japanese) Sign

Western Food

noreply@blogger.com (phauna) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 06:47:00 +0000

中華・ようふうレストラン街
ちゅうか・ようふうレストランがい
Chinese and Western style food area

And here is another Narita sign.

Japanese Food

noreply@blogger.com (phauna) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 06:36:00 +0000

和風レストラン街
わふうレストランがい
Japanese-style food area

It was referring to the food court area in Narita. You could think of it also as saying 'the Japanese Quarter'.

Supplies

noreply@blogger.com (phauna) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 06:28:00 +0000

旅行用品
りょこうようひん
Travel goods

At Narita.

Service Counter

noreply@blogger.com (phauna) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 06:00:00 +0000

カード会員サービス
カードかいいんさーびす
Credit card holder's service (counter)

Another sign at Narita.

Submit a Japanese Sign

noreply@blogger.com (phauna) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 02:41:00 +0000

The moment you've been waiting for has come. I'm opening the floor to anyone with a worthy Japanese sign. Send me your pictures, captioned or not, and I'll put them up. I'll try not to put signs up which are already on the site, or too similar to something on the site, or not very useful. Also, if I don't put your sign up straight away it's because I'm lazy or busy, or perhaps I secretly hate you and your superior sign finding ability.

My email address is shown below, as an image to avoid spam.

Any format is fine, if you want to caption it try the format shown below:

-Original kanji containing sentence
-Hiragana and/or katakana reading
-English translation

An example:

高さ制限２．０ｍ以下
たかさせいげんにメートルいか
Height limit 2.0 metres or less.

I'll check any captions I get, I won't post blindly. Of course, if I make a mistake, please let me know in the comments so we can get it fixed up and avoid misleading anyone. So far people have been very generous in pointing out errors and typos and I appreciate it.

I will be altering and posting these pics for everyone to copy and use as they see fit. If you don't want your picture distributed freely on the internet, then don't send it.

Have at it.

Money Exchange

noreply@blogger.com (phauna) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 01:20:00 +0000

両替
りょうがえ
Money exchange

These are all from Narita airport. Not many people fly in to Haneda, even though it's closer to the centre of Tokyo.

Arrivals

noreply@blogger.com (phauna) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:52:00 +0000

第２ターミナル到着
だいにターミナルとうちゃく
Terminal 2 arrivals.

Also at Narita. I had to crop the English underneath this to enhance it's educational value for you, the reader.

Departures

noreply@blogger.com (phauna) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:41:00 +0000

第２ターミナル出発
だいにターミナルしゅっぱつ
Terminal 2 departures.

At Narita.

Closed Shop

noreply@blogger.com (phauna) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:27:00 +0000

閉店しました
へいてんしました
Closed

They've added the しました although they could have done without it. It's a bit like saying 'we have closed our shop', instead of just describing it as 'closed'.

Lottery Tickets

noreply@blogger.com (phauna) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:10:00 +0000

宝くじ
たからくじ
Lottery

Middle-aged ladies always seem to man these lottery ticket booths. Perhaps older ladies are lucky in Japan. Middle-aged women also have a monopoly on illegal money changing conducted in the street. Go to Shibuya and walk into the main mall street and you can see them standing around next to the Yakuza and arubaito, waiting for business. Maybe they are Yak mums.

Shibuya Standing Sushi Bar

noreply@blogger.com (phauna) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 16:13:00 +0000

元祖立食寿司、　にぎり寿司、　１ヶ７５円、　にぎりたてのお好きなネタがすぐ食べられます。
がんそりっしょくすし、　にぎりすし、　１ヶ７５えん、　にぎりたてのおすきなネタがすぐたべられます。
The originator of stand-up sushi, hand-formed sushi, 1 for 75 yen, your favourite topping stand-up hand-formed sushi can be eaten immediately.

As I said in the last post, restaurants often have heavily stylised kanji on menus and signs. This store has gone for a crystal clear font, except for the Rorschach kanji at top right. You can see 寿司（すし） in both the weird font and the clear, one above the other. I sometimes think they try to make the kanji as disfigured as possible whilst still retaining borderline legibility. The し looks a little like a cartoon duck.

Anyway, that's some cheap sushi.

Noodles

noreply@blogger.com (phauna) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 15:46:00 +0000

そば、　うどん
そば、　うどん
Soba, udon

Remember, it's read right to left. I'll tell you, reading menus and restaurant signs is some of the hardest stuff. Everyone seems to prefer highly stylised scripts, so it's really difficult to make out. It's like trying to read English that's written in an ornate Gothic script. Okay for natives to do, but hell for second language learners. You can see this one is pretty easy because they are using kana, but even so, check out the 'ど'. Now imagine reading kanji written like this.

Bank

noreply@blogger.com (phauna) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 15:26:00 +0000

みずほ銀行
みずほぎんこう
Mizuho Bank

Mizuho is just the name of the bank.

Downloads - Dec 08

noreply@blogger.com (phauna) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 08:27:00 +0000

Here is the second sign pack, which runs from the 4th of August up until the 5th of December 2008. There are 80 signs included. As before there are various formats available. The pictures' folder is archived in 7z format because this type supports the preservation of the Japanese file names on each pic, whereas zip doesn't. You can get the free and open source 7Zip program here.

File details:

Excel spreadsheet, 4 fields; number, kanji, kana, English

Excel 97-03 spreadsheet, 4 fields; number, kanji, kana, English

ODS spreadsheet, 4 fields; number, kanji, kana, English

Tabbed text document, 3 fields; kanji, kana, English

Pictures only, no text, 7z format

The files are available here:

It's a (Japanese) Sign Dec 08

The Aug 08 sign pack is available here.

Dentist's

noreply@blogger.com (phauna) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 04:14:00 +0000

小林歯科
こばやししか
Dr. Kobayashi, dentist.

Kobayashi is just someone's surname.

Tunnel

noreply@blogger.com (phauna) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 04:06:00 +0000

横断地下道
おうだんちかどう
Underground passage (for crossing the road)

Garage Sign

noreply@blogger.com (phauna) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:09:00 +0000

駐車、早朝・夜間
ちゅうしゃ、そうちょう・やかん
Parking, early morning and late at night.

Illegal double parking is everywhere in Japan. People are always dropping things off, picking things up, trying to stay one step ahead of the traffic cops.

Park Ahead

noreply@blogger.com (phauna) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:02:00 +0000

注意、この先公園あり、麻布警察署、港区役所
ちゅうい、このさきこうえんあり、あざぶけいさつしょ、みなとくやくしょ
Caution, ahead there is a park, Azabu Police Station, Minato Ward Office.

I don't understand the need for this sign. It's in the back streets of Roppongi. It seems like a traffic sign, so perhaps it's to warn people that there may be kids running about. The thing is, the street it's on is really a narrow, slow moving type of street, I can't imagine anyone hooning up and down it dangerously.

Stop Button on the Bus

noreply@blogger.com (phauna) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:53:00 +0000

とまります、　お降りの方はこのボタンを押してください
とまります、　おおりのかたはこのボタンをおしてください
Stop, people who want to get off, press the button.

Real Estate Office

noreply@blogger.com (phauna) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:41:00 +0000

山中不動産
やまなかふどうさん
Yamanaka Real Estate

山中 is just a surname. A real estate agent is a 不動産屋.

Bus Station Sign

noreply@blogger.com (phauna) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:02:00 +0000

渋谷駅まで１５分
しぶやえきまで１５ふん
To Shibuya station, 15 minutes.

Library

noreply@blogger.com (phauna) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 10:58:00 +0000

図書館
としょかん
Library

Swing Set

noreply@blogger.com (phauna) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 10:43:00 +0000

注意、天気の良い日は熱くなっております。
ちゅうい、てんきのよいひはあつくなっております。
Warning, on days with good weather, this will become hot.

Some signs are useful and some are just funny. This sign was on a large, arty swing set in the park behind Tokyo Midtown. You would think that if you were designing play equipment, you would make sure said equipment didn't become blisteringly hot on sunny days, you know, when kids are likely to play on them.

Post Box

noreply@blogger.com (phauna) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 10:40:00 +0000

郵便
ゆうびん
Post / mail

This double crossed 'T' symbol is the postal symbol. 'T' for The Postal Service, I suppose.

Edit: Tokyo5 has kindly explained in the comments that "it's not a 'T'. It's 「〒」...it's from the katakana character 「テ」('te') for 「テガミ」 (tegami...which means 'postal letter')." Thanks, Tokyo5.

Shop Information

noreply@blogger.com (phauna) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 10:24:00 +0000

店舗・ご案内
てんぽ・ごあんない
Store information

Buildings are usually filled with a conglomeration of unrelated businesses, and if they are bars or restaurants they usually try to have a list at the front detailing their premises. In department stores also, when they have a floor of eating establishments, there is usually information explaining the different restaurants and their food.

My wife hates going to the department store restaurants because they invariable have only five or six choices which are the same in every department store. The usual suspects include soba, udon, tenpura, sushi, Italian, Chinese and a restaurant which seems to serve pizza and parfaits. We usually end up going to the pizza and parfait one, and getting a cornflake filled parfait. I think the cornflakes are meant to be a cheap replacement for more ice cream. I hate those cornflakes.