Heed this safety warning: "Caution! Don't lean on the gate. The gate would fall down when lean on it. It occurs you trouble." Having eluded the gate, then follow this health instruction: "The Italian word pomodoro means golden fruit. Tomatoes have vitamin, carotene, potash, pectene, and is good for blood pressure, liver disease and constipation." Having escaped constipation, relax with this philosophical pearl of wisdom: "Cross linking artists and material drive for art of polymerzaion and grow together."
These are but a few examples of English seen on commercial signs around Shibuya Station. They may be funny, annoying, simply incomprehensible, or all three. But upon closer inspection there is some method to the madness of confused English seen in signs in Japan.
The most conspicuous peculiarity is the high frequency of misspellings. When eating and drinking, for instance, you might come across "cacktails" (which caused cackles near Ebisu Station), "side ordar" and "chickin" (both Gotanda).
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