23 replies to this topic

[torakris]

check out :

http://www.engrish.com/

for some examples

what are some of the weirdest names, funniest packages you have seen?

[jhlurie]

Yes, I've always loved the Coming bar.

I've actually tasted Chocolate Collon. Ewww. I don't even like saying that.

In the past, somewhere else here on eGullet, we've discussed the lovely Lemon Milk Bourbon Pickle Ex Bourbon Stick Chocolate -- a group of words which should NEVER be together.

[jhlurie]

Engrish isn't exclusive to Japan apparently....

the Koreans eat "Sexy Potatoes"

Edited by jhlurie, 18 May 2003 - 10:13 AM.

[jeniac42]

I liked the one on a Lotte custard cake box:
"Confidence of creating deliciousness. This tastiness can not be carried even by both hands."

There's also a good one on a Kirin milk tea called Rose Life: "Just like a rose, this tea will bring color and beauty to your life."

Does milk tea cost as much in Japan as it does here (2.49 for the small bottle)?

[nightscotsman]

Does milk tea cost as much in Japan as it does here (2.49 for the small bottle)? 

Yikes! Milk tea doesn't cost that much here in Seattle. I think it's usually about $1.50 at our big Asian grocery store. Less on sale, which it was last time I was there. I think it's closer to a buck from vending machines in Japan.

My favorite bit of engrish was found on the plastic sanitary wrapper enclosing a glass in a hotel room in Tokyo:

"DISINFECTED
Maybe I've been hoping too hard.
But I've gone this far.
And it's more than I hoped for."


Deep. Thoughts.

[torakris]

Does milk tea cost as much in Japan as it does here (2.49 for the small bottle)? 

drinks in machines and convenience stores are 120 yen for a can ($1) and 150 yen for a botttle ($1.25) and I thought those were expensive!

[Sinbad]

Since Torakris has a thread called "Daily Nihongo" I thought I make an entry called "Daily English", although I do not plan to make daily entries in it.

Any visitor to Japan must have noticed that many products and establishements have English names, some of them which clearly were not reviewed by a native speaker. I mean, who would name a softdrink "Pocari Sweat"?

Anyway, I though these two entries were quite funny (and food-related).

I wonder what the ambience is in this cafe?

http://www.engrish.c...date=2003-11-11

After seeing places like "Only Coffee and Alcohol" and "Perverse Person"(the place was a very normal bar, nothing seedy about it at all) this does not surprise me.

The name of this bread sounds really mouthwatering.

http://www.engrish.c...date=2003-11-10

I doubt this has been photoshoped since there are enough real examples in Japan.

Anyway, don't let this discourage you from visiting Japan, it is a great country for food.

[torakris]

one of my longtime favorites is the snack food called colon, I just can't bring myself to eat it.....

[torakris]

Ok this is not really food related but someone just opened an educational toys store at the nearby "mall" and they have named the store




Poop & Pee

I am not kidding!
here is their website:

http://www.poop-pee.net/

[GG Mora]

Serendipity just led me to this. Or was it synchronicity?

[elyse]

What is milk tea, please?

[torakris]

What is milk tea, please?

tea with milk added,
as compared to the other ways of drink black teas in Japan

lemon tea

straight tea (nothing added)

So when you go to McDonalds and order an iced tea they will ask you if you want lemon tea or milk tea, then they will plop either a little tub of fake cream or a small packet of fake lemon juice on your tray. I prefer mine straight!

[elyse]

It's sold in bottles with the milk already in? Ewww.

[Squeat Mungry]

It's sold in bottles with the milk already in?  Ewww.

It seems like I saw something like that here in San Francisco the other day. I remember thinking, "Ewww."

Anyway, I used to have a tiny toy robot that was made in Japan. The outside of the box said (among other things), "You, I and it -- all are robots!"

Cheers,

Squeat

[ivan]

Positively addictive...

[torakris]

It's sold in bottles with the milk already in? Ewww.

yeah, sometimes it is in cans too

I actually like the blue can called Royal Milk Tea hot from the vending machine.

[Gary Soup]

check out :

http://www.engrish.com/

for some examples

what are some of the weirdest names, funniest packages you have seen?

I've never been tempted by Calpis sodas.

[Gary Soup]

Not from Japan, but from China: circa 1995 a popular item of apparel in Shanghai was a T-shirt emblazoned with the word(s?) WOBEGO NE (space included).

[elyse]

It's sold in bottles with the milk already in?  Ewww.

yeah, sometimes it is in cans too

I actually like the blue can called Royal Milk Tea hot from the vending machine.

Is this cold?

[Sinbad]

It's sold in bottles with the milk already in?  Ewww.

yeah, sometimes it is in cans too

I actually like the blue can called Royal Milk Tea hot from the vending machine.

Is this cold?

THey actually have vending machines that heats the cans in Japan, usually for coffe and tea but I have seen it for other items as well (Corn Chowder).

I'ts actually not to pleasant to hold a hot metal can in your hand without any insulation

[elyse]

I don't know why I asked. Either option is kinda grossing me out.

[Chris Cognac]

The vending machines are half the reason I want to go to Japan...along with capsule hotels!

[Sinbad]

Well, you can get pretty much anything from a vending machine.

Beer, Whiskey and Sake. (but minors are not allowed to buy, and the machines turn themself off at 11 PM). I have never seen a machine that anyone tried to break into.
Hamburgers and Hot Dogs ready to eat. Bags of Rice.
In the same machine, 250 cl and 350 cl cans of coke with the same price.

If the size fits, a machine in Japan will sell it.

Not Food Related
I thought I had heard it all, but one guy was actually convicted (I believe he went to jail) for operating a vending machine that sold second-handed underwear that he bought from teenage girls.

[torakris]

here is the thread we had on Japanese vending machines:

http://forums.egulle...=0

In the winter a lot of vending machines turn to warmers and serve warm drinks, most of them are half and half and you can buy either hot or cold. You can tell the difference because hot drinks will have the price written on a red background and cold drinks on a blue one....

Hot drinks in cans are wonderful in the winter, they can be almost painful to hold at first but then you cup both hands around them and they warm up the whole body.