Sunday, March 15, 2009   7:58 AM

What the L?

On my monthly muesli run to Donki earlier today[*], I tried out a new route and was suprised to come across a branch of Tesco much closer to home than I was previously aware of. Fully expecting to be disappointed, I nevertheless went in to have a look around on the off-chance they were having a Pork Pie Matsuri or something, and I was as disappointed as I had expected to be. At least as far as the inventory went.

Now, differentiating between "L" and "R" is a perennial problem in these parts and if I had a yen for every such mistake I see, I'd be able to launch my own personal stimulus package.

However, I would expect that a nominally British operation would be able to correctly label the section of cold cabinets containing products made from the stuff squeezed out of cow tits.

Daily Dairy at Tesco in Tokyo, Japan

[*] Apologies if that sentence part doesn't make sense to you, try living in Japan to know what I'm wittering on about


Posted in Engrish
Comments
Haha.. you'd think that such a developed country and such a huge chain of shops would be able to invest in some professional translation. Well I guess they don't care...
Posted by: Zaslony | 2009-03-17 08:13
Ol' standby carries pretty cheap bags of muesli as well. What's the going rate at the Donki?

Back in one of my old haunts, there was a Daily brand conbini that had "Daily Goods" written up above the dairy section. I could never tell if it was an honest mistake or if they were having a bit of fun.
Posted by: john turningpin | 2009-03-17 11:05
Oops, forgot a rather important word; meant to say, "Ol' standby Hanamasa."
Posted by: john turningpin | 2009-03-17 11:06
@Zaslony: they do however have a very robust attitude to Polish blog spam.

@JT: something like 700 yen for 750 grams of finest Belgian muesli. I did have a look in a Hanamasa recently, but didn't find anything other than cornflakes. Which reminds me, teabags: drugstore Papasu (ぱぱす) has boxes 100 Day & Day bags for just 344 yen.
Posted by: ThePenguin | 2009-03-17 16:04
How was Tesco over all? Many British-y things?
Posted by: Miss_igirisu | 2009-03-17 19:10
Hardly, it's basically a small Japanese supermarket. This store did have a shelf with a few "exotic" imported items, but nothing you'd really be excited to discover.

The Meidaimae store I went to last year had slightly more British-y things though.
Posted by: ThePenguin | 2009-03-18 02:00
Come on... it's a bit of a conspiracy, isn't it? I mean, if translators translate things correctly, the Japanese, being as good as they are at memorizing things, will begin to get used to the correct English and eventually translators will be out of work.
Posted by: billywest | 2009-03-18 13:47
I'm rather confused. Should milk, then, not be drunk (drinked? drunken?) every day? Flesh milk, if possible?
Posted by: simoncito | 2009-03-20 13:54
Bearing in mind the notoriously prevalent lactose intolerance combined with differently-dimensioned digestive tracts, cow juice consumption is not as common here as it is in more livestock-orientated societies.

Apparently.
Posted by: ThePenguin | 2009-03-20 14:44