What's in a name?

This entry contains adult language and bitter rants. You have been warned. :)

During recent years sushi has seen a huge increase in popularity in Sweden. I do like sushi and naturally this trend makes me happy. But I’ve run into some awkward names for sushi restaurants in Stockholm. Check this out.

Sushi restaurant #1

Esa sushi.

According to my Japanese dictionary, the word “esa” is written 餌 and means fodder or animal feed, something you give your pet or to a bird in a pond. “Esa” would not be used when talking about human food. Weird name for a restaurant, isn’t it?

Why did they choose this name? It can’t be on purpose, right? No restaurant owner would regard their customers as animals. I guess ignorance is the only explanation, but the name Fodder sushi is just so ironic.

Sushi restaurant #2Ashima sushi.

Ashima doesn’t really mean anything in Japanese. However, “ashi” could be 足 or 脚, which means leg or foot. And “ma” could be 間, which has many meanings, one of them being space between. So with just a little bit of imagination this restaurant would therefore be called Sushi between legs.

In the window of Ashima sushi there is a bunch of Japanese signs written, as decoration. These are indeed real signs but half of them are either backwards or rotated 90 degrees and they have almost no meaning. I say almost, because to two big ones in the middle (the rotated ア and the ホ) is read “aho”. That is very close to “ahou”, which means fool or idiot. Ok…

Sushi restaurant #3Sushi bar ting ting.

The sound “ti” is in Japanese equivalent to “chi”. In a similar way are the sounds “ng” and “n” pretty much the same. “Ting ting” would therefore sound like “chin chin”, which is willy or dick in Japanese. I have actually asked the owners of Sushi bar ting ting why they chose this name. It turns out that “ting ting” means something you can do every day, in Chinese. I guess the intentions were good.

There is a rather entertaining homepage called engrish.com that publishes photos of mistakes in English made by (for the most part) Japanese people. To me, these restaurant names are just as funny. And it seems there are still some great opportunities for translators to make a difference.

Maybe I should change career? I could be working with hilarious stuff like this every day. Wouldn’t that be something?

Ok, that’s it.
Take care!

Animals

This entry is only about cute things. You have been warned. :)

When living in Tokyo I could become sad when hearing recorded birdsong from a loudspeaker, for example in the subway. So hearing all this chirping from real birds in Svedmyra has been really pleasant.

The birds look tiny here in the blog but clicking the pictures will give you larger versions.

A robin on a branch.



A blue tit peaking out of its nest.



A treecreeper carrying stuff for its nest.



A woodpecker pecking at the treecreeper's nest. The treecreeper was so upset.

Another thing that indeed is nice is to have animals coming up close to the house.

Roe deer.



Rabbits.



A mouse, in a flowerpot...

Our trusty mouse hunters just keep on bringing their toys into the house. Not good...

Alice...



....and Maja.

Ok, that's it.

And it must have been the sweetest thing I've ever written... I think I'll be more vicious next time.

Take care!

Epilog

I can't believe that this is the first post I write this year... That's way too late, I know, but there were so many things going on and I found it rather difficult to write about them before now.

First of all, Natsuko and I got married!



We registered our marriage at the ward office in Tokyo on the 2nd of January. That is 2010-01-02. Pretty neat date, isn’t it?

In March we spent a few days on Ishigakijima (a Japanese island outside of Taiwan) with our families. That’s where we had our wedding ceremony. Ishigakijima is a wonderful place. I really miss it.

The 23rd of March was my last day in the lab. Things went quite smooth in the end and I managed to finish most of what I wanted. I have a lot of work to do in Sweden now, but that should be fine as long as I can keep motivated.

On the 24th I went for a final interview at Kanebo Cosmetics in Tokyo. They called me the day after and gave me a job offer.

I spent the last week in Tokyo meeting with friends, Natsuko’s family and packing 2½ years of life in a bag and a few boxes.



I came back home to Sweden on the 31st of March.

A busy schedule but many things turned out for the best. I guess I’m lucky.





Now I’m living in my parents’ house in Svedmyra, Stockholm.

Things I will enjoy in Sweden are:

Being with my family.
Managing my time, myself.
Sailing.

Things I will miss from Japan are:

My wife.
Warmth.
Japanese food (though bread in Sweden is delicious).


This entry is named epilog but that might not be a true title, because I intend to keep on writing and posting pictures. So feel free to check in from time to time in the future as well.

Ok, that’s it.
Take care!