Month: March 2011

Hak Na Sarakham

Maha Sarakham University, where my wife works, paid off the right people to make a sappy love story movie (the kind that makes the most money here) about the university and our town in general called “Hak Na Sarakham” (Laotian for “Love Sarakham”). It opens today at SermThai Plaza in downtown Sarakham, and we saw a steady stream of motorcycles heading that way from the university.

It was fun trying to guess all of the locations shown in the trailer; our favorite bar, Play Bar, is shown towards the end.

Whoring in Japan

A commenter on a post I wrote last year has summarized what it’s like to be professionally serviced in Japan, complete with typical prices and the phrase, “moistened antibiotic towelette.”

How to pay for sexy sexual sex in Tobita Shinchi, Japan.

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Note: I take no responsibility if you get frowned at, beaten, robbed, ganked, or infected with Jap ghetto cooties because you go somewhere you shouldn’t.

That is all.

Water Business

I thought some translator was having fun when I saw a reference to “JR East Water Business Company” on this photo of a vending machine employing a facial recognition system.

As it turns out, it was somebody in a higher position having fun with katakana English:

JR East Water Business Company

(Many Japanese literally translate mizushobai — hostess bars, kyabakura [cabaret clubs], sunakku [err, snacks], etc. — as “water business.” Japanerds seem to prefer the term “water trade.” Of course, there’s no reason to break down this particular word and the Japanese that do it usually do it to show that they know some English…)