Ooh, our first sign submission:
Gah, it’s so wee and hard to make out! Do you hate it? *
From Scott, who works as a translator in a building a few hundred meters from my desk. He says:
the text reads: 月極有料駐車場
I think this is one of those signs that people see and understand, but might have a hard time reading because of the first two characters, which are read つきぎめ and mean monthly or by the month.
So, we have:
月極有料 ( つきぎめ ゆうりょう）
駐車場 ( ちゅうしゃじょう ）
(i.e. a parking lot that charges a monthly fee)
—
SIDENOTE: Dude in my office said (rough translation): “Yeah, that’s a mysterious bit of Japanese, right? Lots of kids would get that wrong, pronouncing it like “tsukigoku” or something.”
Then he handed me a kanji history of 極 (**), which apparently referred to a tree in a very high location in ancient Chinese. Yup.
* ‘Cause it’s pieces of you-ooh?
** We also see this kanji lots in words like 北極 (north pole), etc.
The first time I saw signs that said 月極, I guessed 「げっきょく」. When I couldn’t find it in my dictionary, I tried every other combination of readings I knew and still couldn’t find it. Then I finally asked somebody and learned it was つきぎめ. I keep forgetting it though. Thanks for reminding me.
Hey, thanks for the comment. This one was actually new for me. One of those signs that I saw around but never really read…
We’ll post some signs that have odd kanji, some that are just fun, and some that are pretty normal
Feel free to send over any quirky ones you like… Guest post maybe ? 