Japan can be such a funny place. You could be going along, minding your own business when suddenly, bam, the country will hit you with English that’s so bizarre you have to stop what you’re doing and gaze at it with amazement. I took my kids to the onsen (public hot springs bath), and while I was getting dressed I looked up to see an air filter with “Clean-Poo” written on the side. In neighboring Takasaki (sister city with Kelloggs home Battle Creek, MI, in case you were curious) there’s a swimming school called Koma which decided to be cute and write its name with a “c” instead of a “k,” resulting in Coma Swimming School, not exactly a place where I want my kids to learn to swim. The letters L and R are the same phonetic concept in Japanese, and most bilingual Japanese I know go out of their way to avoid the word “election” for this reason. A couple of years ago there was a poor restaurateur who built a large Texas-style steak house in our city with a giant sign that read RONE STAR — I never did find out if he got the name wrong on purpose to show his originality or if it was an accident — sadly, they went out of business two months after opening.
When you really need to breathe clean air, you need the Clean Poo.
