Obvious Restaurants

Today was yet another day of exhaustion. We had the first day of our class match at school—all of the homerooms compete against each other in various sporting activities—plus I revised a recommendation letter that another teacher wrote for one of his students, and did some coaching for an interview exam that a few of my students will have on Sunday.

And that was just the morning. I took the afternoon off and, among other things, dealt with a whole bunch of moving-related logistics. Is this interesting? I think not, so I’ll give you a couple of photos to look at.

These are from a trip to Fukuoka City in February, when we went to see a Cirque du Soleil performance. Afterward the show, we went to see a friend who lives in the neighbourhood. The photos are from the main street near her apartment.

This first image looks like just another mall-type building. Bright colours, glass curtain walls, assorted awnings, and the like. The bird-like creature on the top-left of the building is the mascot of the company, a chain store called Don Quihote. I’m sure there’s a blog post about Japanese store naming conventions, but I don’t have it in me tonight. But I digress. The photo:

don quihote shopping complex in Hakozaki, Fukuoka City

The real reason I was interested in the building was to put this next photo in context. It’s the main sign that anyone will see as they’re travelling down this very busy street. You can see the left edge of the sign at the right edge of the photo above, but here’s the semi-profile view:

large sign that says 'Food Restaurants'

Now maybe restaurants is a word with different connotations for Asians, but to me—and I’m half-Asian—at it’s simplest, the word means a place to eat. It goes without saying that food will be eaten. Perhaps the person who approved this design wanted to make extra sure that people wouldn’t misunderstand. Of course, after the beauty and pain clinic, who can guess what anyone means or will misinterpret.

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