cc and fj.life.in-japan is a baaaaaaaaaaad combination:

>
>"The 2-Belo" <the2belo@msd.biPOKPOKglobe.ne.jp> wrote in message
>
>> >In Osaka's stations and department stores, you can sometimes hear
>> >loudspeaker messages telling people they shouldn't walk on escalators.
>>
>> In how many mangled languages?
>
>Only one. Gozaimasu-go.
>
>>I think Gifu's Melsa holds the local record, with
>> Gaggin' Annie female announcements in both English and French, for some
>reason.
>
>Most of the time, I don't perceive the Japanese announcements in French or
>English. It's worse than opera. Sometimes it's embarassing because there
>were CMs or songs in *French* and I've asked what that meant, what dialect
>that was...
>Anyway, the messages are not for the gaigin. In Osaka's subway the English
>version of "tanimachi yon chome" is "TuneeMachee yon Chowme", and of course
>on all the maps and signs "yon" is written "4". They don't imagine there are
>human beings that can't count till 4...

Heh.

"This is Nyah-goyah. Please change here for the Hi-GYEASH-ee-YEAH-ma,
May-tetsoo, Keen-tetsoo, and JR lines."

or

"This is Kokusai Center. All desperate gaigins searching for English teaching
jobs at the Nagoya International Center, please lunge off at this station. All
gaigins who do not depart at this station will be stared at expectantly by other
riders until it dawns on them that not all gaigins are bound for Kokusai
Center."

PS. Years ago, before I learned the language, I could have sworn "Chome" was
pronounced similar to "chrome".

[...]

>> something resembling a clear channel.
>
>Ah yeah ? I nearly always have the stairs just for me, while others are
>queuing for the escalators. Except on Sundays or during peak hours when
>there are so many people in your way that you can't do anything to go faster
>(usually, I sit down somewhere, with a book or a drink until they stop
>running like a herd of turkeys).

I don't know how it is in other cities, but Nagoyans (Nagoyites? Nagoyacs?) have
this thing for running at full tilt up and down the stairs, two or three steps
at a time, in a life-or-death dash for other trains, children and elderly be
damned. Rather than being run over like an old man at a crosswalk, I opt for the
moving stairs thingie.

Topic morph: At least the escalators in Nagoya are manageable distancewise. Some
of the escalators in Metro stations back home in Washington DC -- here I'm
thinking of the Red Line Ridley Park/Zoo station in particular -- look like they
might be 22,397 feet high. They're the scariest escalators I've ever seen. Does
Japan have any of these stairway-to-heaven superescalators?


-- 
The 2-Belo
the2belo[AT]msd[DOT]biglobe[DOT]ne[DOT]jp
news:alt.alien.vampire.flonk.flonk.flonk (mhm21x20)
news:alt.fan.karl-malden.nose            (Meow.)
http://www.godhatesjanks.org/            (God Hates Janks!)

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