"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...

> But anyway. So I'm a bastard for wanting to walk up the escalator because
the
> damned thing moves at three cm per solar year

Escalators are designed for 2 persons to stand on the same step (on 2 steps
if one is really taller) and exhange a long kiss. In fact, they are often
too fast.
That was not the aim, but they are also useful for the (many) people that
get quickly exhausted when they have to walk 500 metres in the Japanese
crowd. They take an escalator each time they need a rest. My aunt loved the
HEP, because there are many elevators to go up and down and up and down...

> and there are too many damned
> people leaping down the fixed stairways like they're fleeing from multiple
> hatchet murderers. At least -- MOST of the time -- with an escalator you
get
> 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).

CC