Japanese
Signs (1)
Some
snapshots taken of signs in Tokyo and elsewhere in
Japan. Incidentally, a hyôshiki
often refers
to a traffic sign or a similar sign and a
kanban
to something
larger, though it has a number of special traditional
meanings, also. (Sorry for using romaji, but I am
assuming that not all your computers can read
Japanese.)
The white
billboard on the left says, kashi-kanban,
meaning "billboard for rent." Kashi
can be used
before other nouns to add "rental":
kashi-sôko
(rental
storage), kashi-jitensha
(rental
bicycle), and kashi-jimusho
(office for
rent)k, for example.
Here some
people have made clever use of a no-parking
(chûsha
kinshi) sign. I suppose they
figured it didn't apply to them since the equivalent
sign for bikes of all sorts is chûrin kinshi. (kanji
to right)
Daishôben
o kinzu. "Defecation and urination
prohibited." Admittedly, I have seen a lot of
urination on the streets, but not yet a case of
defecation.
The sign for
a pawn shop. The kanji is read shichi
in this case,
though usually shitsu.
"Pawn shop" is shichi-ya.
The sign on
the right gives the main items the pawn shop deals
in.The very last reads Sono
ta, meaning "Etc." or "and
so forth," so everything is basically covered.
Continue on to
Japanese Signs
(2)
