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Jul 21, 2018

Cow-work Door...??

When I was exploring around a random inaka town the other day, I walked by a traditional Japanese soba restaurant and came across a sign that stopped me for a quick snap of a photo. The shop itself looked fine, but I noticed two familiar kanji on their door: 自動, meaning automatic. Oh right, it's the automatic door, and there is nothing out of the ordinary about that, except for the little piece of white paper right above it with two less familiar kanji.


I looked closer and it appeared to say: 牛勤..... cow work???


Cow-work Door...?? photo


Now, as I have mentioned, this restaurant is not a yakiniku joint where customers enjoy beef, and a quick peak inside shows me that only human beings were working the floor, so I stood there thinking what that could have meant. Suddenly, remember how horrendous my own hand-writing is, I realized it was merely a mistake in my comprehension, as whoever wrote this sign has the habit of writing the top side way swipe on the left  as a downward stroke instead. The kanji that I thought was 勤 (work) was of course, 動 (move) but just written in a slightly strange way.


However, even after I know of the person's habit, I still could not see the kanji on the left as anything other than 牛 (cow). Yes, I know it should be 手, with the whole thing 手動 meaning hand controlled because their automatic door must be broken, but the left kanji is just so strange that from that point on, I just imagined the shop's door being opened and closed by a cow. This really reminded me how important a legible handwriting is, regardless of your language.


The next day, this question came to my head:


Why didn't they cover the "automatic door" sign with this sign, but put it right above???


There are too many things in life we just don't understand.

JapanRamen

JapanRamen

Games, manga, and ramen. Those three things make up my Tri-force lol.


2 Comments

  • edthethe

    on Jul 21

    I should show this to my daughter who complains about kanji practice. She would get a laugh and maybe fix her own mistakes.

  • JapanRamen

    on Jul 21

    @edthethe Yes, please tell her how it confused the heck out of this grown adult for minutes lol