Today I am in Placerville, California for my cousin’s wedding. I arrived early as I was chauffeuring the Grandmother of the Bride, so I am searching through the pictures on my iPad for something to post while waiting.

I ran across a couple pictures that I took in Japan earlier this year. When I travel I am always on the lookout for funny English translations. I found one in the bathroom of the Maebashi Hotel in Gunman Prefecture that made me laugh.

Before I post the picture of the translation, I decided it would be interesting to show the room key. For most of us in the US, we rarely see an actual key for a room key anymore. Especially one with the name of the hotel and the room number on it. You typically will leave this key at the front desk when you leave the hotel for the day. Other newer hotels that I stayed at had electronic keys, but in this smaller Japanese city they were a bit behind :-).

OK, now for the picture. First the full item:

And then a close up of the text:

I chuckled while thinking about what might be the other use other than drying your hair, and how can you dry water from your hair if you have to keep it away from water. In most newer hotels they have better translations, but it is always neat to run across an older one.

When I see humorous translations, I always wonder how people who read other languages see the signs that we translate into their language. Do they find humorous translations as well? I know that when I try to speak little bits of other languages, that I get some interesting smiles, so I am sure that they have just as much fun as we do.

Oh, congratulations to my Cousin Ashley and Michael. You have picked a beautiful place for your ceremony, and my camera has already captured a few nice memories.

Steven