TATEBAYASHI

I wore my shirt with Japanese writing on it today, forgetting two things I should really have remembered.

Firstly, I work with a Japanese person. Secondly, I have no idea what the script on my shirt actually says; I just bought it years ago because I thought it looked cool.

Well you know where this is going. Shuko took a look at the characters written in red across my person, and happily informed me that I was basically a billboard, advertising a town called Tatebayashi, and one of the characters was upside-down so it was misspelled anyway. We looked it up.

“So basically,” I said, peering over her shoulder at Google Maps, “It’s north of Tokyo but not in the North north, it’s in the middle of virtually nowhere, and it’s pretty average by all accounts. Hmm...”

“It’s Milton Keynes!” she said, collapsing into a fit of laughter. To the sudden burst of hilarity from my colleagues, I realised I had been promoting the Japanese version of Milton Keynes.

“Only it’s more like Milton Koynes isn’t it Matt?” asked Tim, pointing out hilariously that one of the characters was upside down.

I’ve really got to make sure I know what’s written on me. Milton Koynes indeed.