Beauty Salon Signs

Thank you Teruhiko for your recent analysis of a beauty salon's name.

I often notice humourous English store names in Japan, especially for beauty salons. I'm not sure of the reason but beauty salons tend to select the funniest English names that often don't make sense.

Let me give you a few of my favourite examples. I've included a photo of a barber shop called "Hair Cook Pit". Obviously, there is no logical relationship between cooking and hair. The owner of "Beauty Saloon" probably intended her sign to say "Beauty Salon". A saloon is an American wild west bar. One of my favourite beauty salon signs states "Hair Shop, God Hand's, Since 1998". It seems God only has 9 years experience with hair. There's a hair salon in Nagoya by the name of "Hair Woops". Whoops is an interjection similar to oops, and is said after a mistake is made, to express apology. I hope the staff at "Hair Woops" don't have to use the word whoops too often after finishing a customer's hair!

Has anyone else noticed any particularly humourous English signs in Japan?

Blue Grotto

Thanks for telling us about your visit to the Blue Grotto (Grotta Azzurra) in Capri, Italy, Takuma!

It sounds like it was a beautiful sight, too bad you couldn't stay longer. I've never visited the Blue Grotto before but I recently learned a bit about it.

Roman emperors with villas on Capri reportedly used the Blue Grotto as a private bath. Inside the grotto the sea seems to be lit from underwater. It is a magnificent fluorescent blue colour, hence its name. This is due to another opening to the grotto, completely submerged, and the limestone bottom. It allows in sunlight to truly light the water from below. The underground passages leading to the grotto are partially sealed and supposedly once were connected to catacombs of Roman tombs.