Happy New Year 2014! The Year of the "Hose"!
This joke might be hard to understand for foreigners who don't speak Japanese or vice versa.... Next year is the year of the Horse... But "Horse" and "Hose" are written the same way in Katakana (the Japanese alphabet for foreign words - there's 3 alphabets in Japan, but the way, but that's another story....)
Horse in Japanese is "uma." When a Japanese studies English, they learn that "uma," in English, is pronounced: "ho-su." Which, you can probably guess, is the same pronunciation - and the same word - as the garden watering device... Also, hence, the pose that looks like I might be "riding" the hose.
The joke really gets to be an "inside joke" when you realize that in the red circle at the top right, there is a mix of the Japanese alphabet "Hiragana" (the language for Japanese things) for the "ho" and in Katakana for the "su." It's a curve ball!
It's a 13-year-old level joke, but I think it wouldn't occur to most Japanese so some of them think it's hilarious!
WelI, as we all know, a joke that must be explained isn't that funny… I guess, you'd have to be here to appreciate it!
Anyway, have a safe and Happy New Year!
May all your dreams come true in 2014!
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