There are some pretty hilarious place names in the world, like Hell, Michigan, Hookersville, West Virginia or Lord Berkeley’s Knob, Scotland. There are some that sound funny to the Japanese, too. The second largest city in Idaho is Nampa, which happens to be a common slang term that roughly means “girl hunting,” what bored young people in Japanese cities usually do on weekends. The Boyne Valley in Australia causes snickering when rendered into katakana, since boin is the sound of soft, round things associated with females going, well, “boing.” There’s a mountain called Kintamani in Indonesia, amusing since kintama means “gold balls” and represents something very dear to most men; the Chinko River in Africa is also amusing, since chinko is a common word for the male member. The most common “catch-all” Japanese insult is baka, meaning “stupid,” but in Osaka they prefer the term aho, and I’m sure the town of Ajo, Arizona gets at least a few additional tourists each year because of this name. But the strangest accidental place name would have to be Eromanga, a mining town that’s the farthest point from the sea in Australia, with a name that sounds like manga comics that are naughty. I am totally going there someday.
Road trip to Eromanga! Who’s with me??
