Information in the Wild Week 3: A Stroll around the Neighbourhood

Bunpro
#8
Day 1

とびだし注意スピード落とせ
滝野羽警察署•北区

Literal Translation: Jumping Out Caution Reduce Speed; Takinoha Police Station, North Ward/District

This sign from the Takinoha Police Station, North Ward/District is warning drivers to reduce their speed to give them enough time to stop in case a child (or an animal) runs out into the road.

Extra credit: The sign does not specify which, but there is a “Children Crossing” sign on the next block, so I think they mean children. If it was a deer crossing there’d probably be an illustration of a deer or the sign would include 動物 or どうぶつ.

Also not sure if I got the city’s name right.

Day 2

お知らせ
受動禁煙防止の観点から
灰皿を撤去させていただきました
こちらでの禁煙はご遠慮ください
店主

Literal Translation: Notice, from the passive (受動) smoking cessation (禁煙) prevention (防止) point of view (観点), the ashtrays have been removed, please refrain from smoking here, -Shopkeeper

We know that this sign is in a store because the notice is from the shopkeeper (店主). The sign is explaining that the ashtrays have been removed to prevent secondhand smoke and to please refrain from smoking.

Note: At first I was confused that there was both 禁煙 and 防止 because 禁煙 can refer to a smoking prohibition. Since I’ve also heard 禁煙 used to refer to smoking in general, I googled “passive smoking cessation” and realized the sign might be talking about secondhand smoke. I also tried looking up 受動禁煙 as one word instead of two separate ones and saw it is defined as “passive smoking” or “secondhand smoking” so now I’m sure that’s what it means. I think it took a little longer for me to arrive at this conclusion because in English it is usually discussed as as “secondhand smoke” or “secondhand smoke inhalation” rather than used as a verb like “second-hand smoking”.

Day 3

This is an advertisement for an indoor golf school (インドアゴルフスクール). At the top it says that newcomers are welcome (初心者大歓迎), you can learn from zero/nothing (ゼロから学ぶ), and there are licensed/authorized coaches (認定コーチが教えて).

For 7,908円 a month, you get to learn as much as you want (習い放題) and use the Original Swing machine (オリギナルスイング解新機) as much as you want (使い放題). Tax is included (税込) and the initiation fee is not (入会金別途). There is no limit on how many times you can use (回数制限なし), and coming every day is OK (毎日通ってもOK). It again says that newcomers are welcome (初心者大歓迎).

The big red text says that visitors are welcome at any time. (いつでも見学自由！お気軽にどうぞ！)

わたしのゴルフ is the name of the school and this is the Akabane branch (赤羽店). It is open 24 hours (24時間利用OK) and then the reception hours (各種受付時間) for free trials (無料体験) are listed, which are 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays (平日)—except for Tuesdays and Fridays (火•金休み)—and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays (土日祝祭日).

Day 4

<お願い>
Please:

お子様が乗りの際はカートから手を放さないでください。
If your child is riding (in the cart) (乗り際は) please do not remove your hands from the cart (カートから手を放さないで下さい).

不注意による事故については責任を負いかねます。
We cannot be responsible (責任を負いかねます) for accidents resulting from carelessness (不注意による事故).

貴重品は必ず手にお持ち下さい。
Please be sure to hold on to your valuables (貴重品).

ご利用後は所定の立ち置にお戻し下さい。
Please return the cart to the designated area (所定の位置) after using (御利用後).

Extra Credit:

楽しく便利にお買い物をショッピングカートをご利用下さい
Please use our shopping carts to shop happily and conveniently.

お子様はこの様にお乗せてください。
Please have your child ride in this manner.

お子様が立ちになりますと大変危険です。
It is very dangerous for the child to stand. (Literally, if the were to stand it would be very dangerous.)

Day 5

The area is for short term motorcycle storage (not bicycles). The store manager wants people not to park their motorcycles there if they are not shopping in the store or for long periods of time outside of business hours.

First Sign (一番目のサイン):

バイク置場
Motorcycle Storage

自転車駐輪禁止
Bicycle Parking is Prohibited

Second Sign (二番目のサイン):

お客様用バイク一時置場
Short Term Motorcycle Storage for Customers

営業時間外（開店前・閉店後）及びお買い物以外での長時間駐車はお止め下さい。
Outside of business hours (before and after closing) or other than shopping, please do not park for an extended period of time.

長時間駐車の場合は警告シールを貼らせて頂きますのでご了承下さい。
If you park for a long time we will apply a warning sticker.

店長
Store Manager

Third Sign (三番目のサイン):

交通法規の遵守
Obeying Traffic Law

公道（歩道）は歩行者優先です。
On public roads (walkways/sidewalks) pedestrians take priority.

自転車・バイク走行しながら歩道乗り入れは禁止（道路交通法違反）です。
While operating/running a bicycle or motorcycle it is prohibited to drive/ride on pedestrian walkways (it is a violation of traffic law).

警視庁赤羽警察署
Metropolitan Police Department Akabane Police Station

Day 6

This one was tough, and not just because of deciphering the handwritten kanji. Interestingly, it is a good example of how much you can understand even if you don’t know all the words. I also kind of cheated a tinsy bit by finding the company’s website (https://s-toramo.com/) and finding the “recommended for” section and using OCR on the line with 限定 so I could verify the kanji. Turns out the only ones I couldn’t get at all were 初回 (I thought ＊刀同) and 硬. And does the おくみ mean like “and so on” or “etc.”? I couldn’t find any definitions, but am also unsure if I read it correctly.

TORAMO ストレッチ専門店
TORAMO Stretch Specialty Shop (Massage Parlor)

初回限定
Limited to First Time (customers)

30分 １０００円
30 minutes for 1000 yen

<こんな方にススメ>
Recommended for (people with):

腰の痛み・肩の重さ・姿勢の悪さ・身体の硬さ、おくみ。。。
Back Pain • Stiff/Heavy Shoulders • Bad/Poor Posture • Body Stiffness • etc./and so on

ぜひストレッチ体験してみませんか？
(By all means) Won’t you try (the experience of) stretching?

Toramo is a stretching shop (or massage parlor?) (ストレッチ専門店), 30 minutes for ¥1,000 limited (限定) to first-time customers (初回).

This service is recommended for people with back pain (that’s me!) (腰の痛み), heavy shoulders/shoulder stiffness (肩の重さ) , bad posture (姿勢の悪さ), and body stiffness (身体の硬さ).

Day 7

入居者及び関係者以外の自転車・バイク等は置かないでください！！
(People) other than tenants or staff/related parties please do not put/park your bicycle • motorcycle etc. here.

（発見次第撤去します）
It will be removed upon discovery (immediately).

ー建物権利ー
Building Management

０

大東健託（株）
Daito Trust, Ltd.

The sign says this bicycle parking is for tenants and their guests/staff use only. Bikes that aren’t supposed to be there will be removed immediately.

お疲れ様でした！次の週間に楽しみにしています。あけましておめでとう皆さん！
一緒に日本語の勉強を頑張りましょう！！！

Thanks for another great week. Looking forward to the next one. Happy new year!

6 Likes
#9

Thanks for doing this again!

Day 1

The sign essentially commands us (落とせ) to slow down due to the danger of things “leaping out” (of the barely visible side streets).

Most of the kanji in the lower left I couldn’t quite make out, but my OCR software somehow did:
It’s a sign posted by the northern district of some police station.

Day 2

I like how these things always start off with words I know (お知らせ), just for me to literally look up all the rest :sweat_smile:
Really shows the importance of learning kanji, that way one can at least infer the meanings…

Anyhow, the notice says that, in the interest of stopping passive smoking, they’ve removed the ashtray.
(Literal: “From the viewpoint of passive smoking prevention …”)

As such, one is asked not to smoke in this area.

Day 3

The funky kanji at the top are unfortunately too much for my OCR :<
I can ready some of them, but not all…

  1. It’s an “indoor golf school”, promising that you can learn from scratch.
  2. You get access to some golf machine(?) that you can use an unlimited amount of times.
    Apparently there’s a bit more to it than this after reading some other answers haha
  3. I cannot say for certain, but I think it’s the schedule for when staff are present.
Day 4

The instructions on the left read:

  • Children should be seated in the shopping card.
  • Standing in the cart is dangerous.

The bullet point list on the right are a few requests (お願い):

  • When children are riding (lit. “on the occasion of riding”), don’t let go of the card.
  • The store cannot be held responsible for accidents caused by carelessnes.
  • This one was a bit harder, but it says to hold on to your valuables.
    (As in, beware of pickpocketers)
  • After use, please return the cart.
4 Likes
#10

I assume you are thinking something like
飲み込み
消し込み

I don’t think that’s the case here, looks like two nouns (名詞)

2 Likes
#11
Day 2

Announcement
Due to the prevention of smoking [in public spaces], we have removed ash trays. Please refrain from smoking here.
Store manager.

3 Likes
#12

Bunch of words I didn’t know in this one, but the dictionary helped.

Summary

Notice

From the standpoint of preventing second hand smoking, we have removed the ashtray.
Please refrain from smoking here.

The owner.

I think that’d be the gist of it, though, I’m more or less guessing that

Summary

防止の観点から can be translated less literally as “in order to prevent”.

Also, I suppose

Summary

灰皿 refers to the bigger waste disposal/ashtray things you see outside some shops. Is that correct though?

3 Likes
#13

Thank you so much for doing these! It’s a really great project! Plus, you know, I was thinking, each day’s photo would make a really good Instagram post! If you’ve got the time, a little promotion never hurt!

3 Likes
#14

Really enjoying this. Thanks for doing.
5. This is a bike parking place- whether motor bike or push bike I have no idea.
The manager asks not to park when shop is closed I think.

3 Likes
#15

Can someone explain to me why かねます is used in the day 4 post at the second bullet point - 責任を負いかねます
My impression (given how Bunpro explains it) is that かねる is used when someone would like to do A, but it would essentially stretch them too thin; therefore, they cannot do A. But in this case, I don’t see why/how a store would have the “want” to take responsibility for something that isn’t their fault…? Which is why I’m a bit confused why かねる is being used here.

1 Like
#16

They are trying to convey the sentiment that “they really would like to (bear the responsibility), but they really can not”.

You can just consider it a more gentle way of saying 「責任を負いません」

2 Likes
#17

I figured this was how it was being used… but I guess what I’m getting at is like, the store has no part in the person being careless, so why would they indicate sentiment in saying that they would like to be liable for what happened, but can’t. Is there something I’m missing? I realize we’re looking at this from an English translation, but if someone told me “I’d like to be responsible for your carelessness, but I can’t” just sounds kind of condescending to me in a way rather than showing sentiment.

2 Likes
#18

Copied straight from a Japanese dictionary:

「動詞連用形+—」 の形で、 接尾語的に〕 そうしたくてもそうすることが出来ない事情にある。 「言い出し—／ 見るに見— 〔=黙って見ていることが出来ない〕／ お引き受けいたし兼ねます／ 君が来るのを待ちかねて 〔=今か今かと待って〕 いたよ」⇒かねない

(When connected to the conjunctive form of a verb as a suffix) Being in the state of not being able to do something even if one wanted to.

It doesn’t necessarily always mean that one actually wants to, but can give off the sentiment of ‘oh It’d be great if I could (A), but it’s not really feasible’.

In the case of that particular sign, I’d say rather than 'we want to take responsibility but can’t ', it’s closer to ‘taking responsibility would be a bit of a stretch of our obligations’. It’s just a slightly more polite way of saying ‘unless the fault is clearly ours (a shelf falls on your trolley), look after your own kid’.

3 Likes
#19

I feel a lot better about my Day 6 answer after reading yours, since you arrived at the same conclusions as I did. (Except you correctly read that letter at the end as む and not あ or お like I did.)

Totally agree that stretching is free. Having someone else do it for you is kind of like sports massage. When I have it done they stretch more deeply than I can do on my own because of the myotatic reflex. According to their website the introductory price for 50 minutes is ¥5,500, which is about $42 USD. (¥1,000 is about $8 USD.) That’s super inexpensive! I want to go there!

3 Likes
#20

You’re very kind, but believe me, it was Google Translate that did the heavy lifting on this one! My eyes go funny the moment I look at handwritten text!

And wow, is that price cheap is it? I had no idea! Thanks, and Happy New Year!

2 Likes
#21

Today it was Google Translate. And tomorrow it will be a little less, and the next day even less than that until it’s all you.

Yep! ¥1 is about 76¢. Today, anyway. This week it’s been fluctuating between 74¢ and 76¢ according to Google.

Happy new year to you too!

3 Likes
#22

I think you can look at it in a couple of ways.

  1. You can treat it as “Business language” or indirect language used for addressing a large number of people. A similar example would be 「喫煙はご遠慮ください」in the day 2 post which really means smoking is prohibited but phrased in a more gentle way.

  2. You can treat it as lip service. In English, an employee may reject someone’s request by saying “I would love to if I could, but…”, even if they would not have necessarily wanted to whether there was a reason or not.

2 Likes
#23

How do you get the google translate to read the handwritten test? I always type it in. Do you take a screenshot?

1 Like
#25

I can usually read enough to be able to type it in on my own, but in the instances I can’t, I can sometimes select the text right off the image in Preview (on Mac OSX). Needless to say it’s far less accurate with handwritten text.

4 Likes
#26

Thanks. I will try it!

3 Likes
#27

I was away and missed this week, so am going to give my very brief answers all in one go. Also, a lot of this was waaaay beyond my kanji understanding level… so I did my best with rough working!

Day 1

Be aware of people stepping out and lower our speed.

Day 2

I don’t know enough of the kanji to decipher this one. (And I’ve decided my approach to these challenges is to try to do them as if I were encountering them “in the wild” without any support!)

Day 3
  1. It looks like this is an ad for an “indoor golf school”.
  2. You get “all you can learn”, including being able to come every day and some other points I can’t quite interpret… Plus “all you can use” for their original swing equipment?!
  3. Are these manned reception hours? 14:00-22:00 on weekdays (well, except Tuesdays and Fridays) and 09:00-19:00 on weekends and holidays.
Day 4

Don’t let go of the cart when a child is riding in it. I’m not sure of the other points, but I think the last might be about returning it to the right place after use.

Day 5

A place for keeping bikes for an hour?
Outside of business hours (before the store opens and after it closes)… something about not leaving for long periods of time if you’re not shopping??

Day 6

Somewhere for storage? [Edit: nope - completely wrong there!]
Not a chance on the other questions! :sweat_smile:

Day 7

Don’t leave our bicycles or motorbikes here unless we’re one of the designated types of people.

4 Likes
#28

I’ve tried a few approaches over the past few weeks, and I think that is my favourite!

3 Likes