Today, a friend and I took a visit to a newly opened Japanese restaurant here.
After stumbling through the menu and placing our order I "popped" the question.
I deliberately wore my Busa hat!
I held up the hat and asked them, "what does this writing mean"?
Each one of them, man and woman alike not only gave me a translation but thought that it was cool that someone (here in Alabama) was inquiring about thier native language.
So, the first guy holds up his arms like he was pointing a rifle, he said "center". It means "focus on the center of the target". A Japanese chick came by seeing the stir I had created and she said, in broken English "Focus".
The guy at the counter, the one who seated us, came to the table and asked what the English writing on the hat said and I told him "Hayabusa", "I think it is some sort of bird". He agreed and looked at the script, then pulled out a piece of paper and more or less made the same character on it with his pen.
From there we talked about Nextel Cup, they did not think stock car racing was all that cool because we just race in circles. Then I told them that Toyota was about to enter the competition and they sorta smiled.
They asked me if "GM was a bad make of vehicle", again in broken English. I told them "no, they are just big and slow, like our motorcycles tend to be"!!!
Some big redneck dude who was in there eating and sorta watching me work the group was not enjoying all of this near as much as I was!
Anyway, they all told me that our beloved Kanji script means "FOCUS"!
Not speed and power, just.....
FOCUS!
How bout that?
<!--EDIT|YH2K
Reason for Edit: "My Japanese is terrible!"|1138320067 -->
After stumbling through the menu and placing our order I "popped" the question.
I deliberately wore my Busa hat!
I held up the hat and asked them, "what does this writing mean"?
Each one of them, man and woman alike not only gave me a translation but thought that it was cool that someone (here in Alabama) was inquiring about thier native language.
So, the first guy holds up his arms like he was pointing a rifle, he said "center". It means "focus on the center of the target". A Japanese chick came by seeing the stir I had created and she said, in broken English "Focus".
The guy at the counter, the one who seated us, came to the table and asked what the English writing on the hat said and I told him "Hayabusa", "I think it is some sort of bird". He agreed and looked at the script, then pulled out a piece of paper and more or less made the same character on it with his pen.
From there we talked about Nextel Cup, they did not think stock car racing was all that cool because we just race in circles. Then I told them that Toyota was about to enter the competition and they sorta smiled.
They asked me if "GM was a bad make of vehicle", again in broken English. I told them "no, they are just big and slow, like our motorcycles tend to be"!!!
Some big redneck dude who was in there eating and sorta watching me work the group was not enjoying all of this near as much as I was!
Anyway, they all told me that our beloved Kanji script means "FOCUS"!
Not speed and power, just.....
FOCUS!
How bout that?
<!--EDIT|YH2K
Reason for Edit: "My Japanese is terrible!"|1138320067 -->
