Friday 6 January 2012

F%$!*`=)' Sale!

Yes.
You are reading that right.
A FUCKIN' Sale.

This is nothing to do with Okaasan and Me (that's a F%&#!+*~ Something else sometimes), but this is doing the rounds on Facebook at the moment in Japan and beyond - a shop in Osaka and their January sales slogan.
Unbelievable!!!

Gallerie by Spinns.......that's the shop. And this is their current slogan.

There is some explanation for this, maybe....although I still think this is someone in their copy writing department who is hoping for a new job in 2012.
The explanation seems to be that "fuku" in Japanese means "luck", and Japanese shops in January sell fukubukuro or Lucky Bags. Bags stuffed with unsold stuff, which they bag up together and sell cheaply and customers hope to get something good inside...along with lots of stuff they don't need at all.

So a Fuckin' - maybe Lucky fuku Money kin Sale??

Or not.

(For Japanese readers: "Fuck" is just about the strongest swearword. Really shouldn't be used unless you know people very well. It's common in U.S. movies now of course, but really in polite, every day conversation you just DON'T use this....I use it to myself, to Yujiro when I am angry with him, to Okaasan secretly....).

Amazing....I think this will live as an Only in Japan story for years to come...like the old one about a Santa nailed to a cross in a department store...

6 comments:

  1. I almost spat mt tea out.... oh lord, Engrish...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nooo, poor Santa!! I hadn't heard that one. I saw that sign on FB and did laugh though. Insane and only in Japan.
    Of course I use the word far too often and, as Santa told me, I really do need to try and swear less this year.
    xxx

    ReplyDelete
  3. Santa nailed to a cross? Is it bad I find that funny? Mind you I also laughed when the giant inflatable santa flew off the shopping centre in my home town

    ReplyDelete
  4. Apologies for almost-tea-spatting!!!....but it IS an awful/amazing slogan for a shop to choose isn't it?!!

    Not sure if the Santa on a Cross is true or not, it is told in various books and articals about Japan and Christmas traditions...and I am not sure if it really happened. But I think it did.....a department store in Tokyo I guess.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Santa on a cross is not an ulban myth. It's true. I saw it with my own eyes. Wrote a letter to my mum about it. Was up in Tokyo. At a big department store beginning with a T. Togo? 1992. Love the Fuckin' Sale. Classic Japan.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Really??? wow...great.....love Japan too, things you think "no, couldn't be..."...ARE!

    ReplyDelete