Ken Yasumoto-Nicolson wrote:

> I was watching Go-gai last night and they covered the problems of
> gaigins leaving grafitti all over ancient monuments. Before you all
> get het up, it was Gapanese gaigins in Europe scribbling ganji on the
> Leaning Tower of Pisa, etc.
>
> They then did a regular bit of testing the average
> person-in-the-Tokyo-street's general knowledge of Japanese thingies.
> This time it was to write all the names of the 6 (?) prefectures in
> Kyushu on a map of said island. Out of about 80-or-so people, they
> showed two people presented with the map asking if it really was a bit
> of Japan. The second of these two idiots had a go, starting from the
> NW clockwise with Tokushima-ken, Kita-kyushu-ken, Hataka-ken,
> Kobe-ken...

Ask Japanese in any language if the name of the prefecture is "Ibaraki"
or "Ibaragi". Not even NHK or other late night news seem to be able to
make up their mind.