Funny Things Japanese Taxi Drivers Say

I have some Japanese friends who are taxi drivers. They are all cool guys and have a very dry sense of humor.

One guy's name is Takahashi and he has the driest sense of humor you'll ever hear.

One time I was drinking wiht him and he said,

"Okane ga nai kara nomanai" (I don't have any money so I can't drink). "Okane" is money. "Ga nai" means, "I have none." "Nomanai" means "I can't drink." But "Nomanai" sounds very close to "No money." "No - Ma - nai" (No money)... Get it? 

Still don't get it? It's OK. I was there and I didn't get it at first either.

I didn't catch the joke and if you don't speak Japanese, you probably won't. I didn't get it because I am often dumb drunk and didn't realize he was making a play on words.

To the dim, slow or drunk (of which I was all three) It sounds like he is saying, "I have no money so I have no money."... But he is actually saying, "I have no money so I can't drink." It's a play on the sound of the words and mixes English with Japanese....

Anyway, I was riding in a taxi the other day with Takahashi san driving. We were crawling in a traffic jam due to road construction on "Meguro Dori." (Meguro Road). 

Meguro Dori is one of the oldest and most well know roads in Tokyo. I guess it's been there for over 200 years... 

Anyhow, we were driving down Meguro Dori and, SURPRISE! there was a ton of road construction going on! There's always tons of road construction going on on that road!

As we sat there, Takahashi slowly turned around to me, cracked a wry smile and slowly and quite cynically said, 

"World War Two ended 65 years ago but construction on Meguro Dori is still going!" 

I cracked up! It was really funny since, just a few minutes before we were talking about how absurd it is that people, on the one hand, think the government are all dishonest and useless, then, on the other hand, a half second later, claim that we should give more tax monies and power to the government so that they can fix the weather (Global Warming and all that nonsense!)

Ha! The government can't even fix a pothole in the road on time and under budget! How in the hell do people think they can fix the weather? Hilarious!

--------------

Here's a video of some guy riding his motorcycle and getting on Meguro Dori near my house.

Japanese Punks and Japanese Tradition

I am in the midst of writing a longer post about cockroaches and collective punishment. But in the meantime I thought you'd crack up at this hilarious picture sent to me by a friend of mine.


His name is Toshitaka Taniguchi  and he is the guy standing on the right. He's pretty flipped out and works as a tattoo artist. He also plays guitar in one of the worst punk bands you'll ever see... So, I guess, that could be construed as meaning, one of the better ones.... Well, they would be good if they'd practice and not drink so much that they can barely stand up when they are on stage.

The guy on the left is dressed for a matsuri (festival), probably in Meguro as his happi (shirt) says, "Yagumo." Yagumo is an area of Meguro.


The really funny part is that the guy on the left has his hair cut so that it says, "Matsuri" on the back. I've never seen that before!


Funny stuff by Japanese punks... There's something that seems complimentary about Japanese tradition and the colors (and some of the craziness) and punk rock... Can't put my finger on what it is exactly, but it seems to match.

Japanese punks and Kabuki... I don't know, but this guy looks like he could be the lead singer of a very loud rock group.

And yet another example of yet another good thing about Japan. Even though these guys are punks, they still follow Japanese tradition and respect their elders and participate. I think it's cool.


Why not? Matsuri is fun!