Weird, Wild, Stuff
"What? Where? Why?!" These are some questions you may be asking yourself as you see this picture. The where is that it is a picture painted on a protective screen pulled down in front of a streetside vendor. I found it while walking out of Yamate station; another station very close to my house. "But why?" you ask. Let me tell you that I asked myself the same question and, after much consideration, I have a few theories. I wondered, could it be a misplaced reference to the popular Beatles song "Hello Goodbye?" Maybe there is an identical bird somewhere else in Japan cawing "Hey Jude." We'll never know. My second thought was that this bird was spouting some apocalyptic message. Could it be that it was greeting me kindly one second, and predicting the coming destruction of man in the next? This one struck me as a little too weighty a message for a cute painted bird, and so I pondered my way to my final conclusion.
This bird is a product of Japanese politeness mixed with good old American "Yo Mama!" sass. It's polite in a Japanese way and greets the potential customer kindly. But then it slaps you in the face with a "We're closed you conservative, suit-wearing, manga reading salaryman!" goodbye. This seemed to be the most likely circumstance. Either that, or the Japanese just like cuddly animals that tell you off. (I realized I've grossly overused and possibly even misused the "quotation" keys, but you know what? Deal with it, HELLO GOODBYE.)
posted by Brett @ 7/20/2006 10:59:00 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
hey love... i'd have to go ahead and agree that this bird is completely nonsensical, but i like it! Keep taking pictures of these comedic treasures. I met a man the other day in a marketplace who was talking into his soda can (in an Austraian accent of course) and telling me that we were going to be famous together. nothin like travelling, huh? :)
~maya
This was the funniest explanation of hello goodbye. This is good comic stuff for it kept me laughing. Love, Grandma
I believe it isn't really a penguin at all, rather, it is a puffin. You might be interested in learning further about their mannerisms if you are to truly understand the reference "hello goodbye" :
http://www.audubon.org/bird/puffin/puffins.html
Given my knowledge, however, I must also point out that there are no puffins located in Japan, so it is possible that while the image clearly represents a puffin, it may be a confused image of a penguin. There are some penguins in Japan and this article may shed some light on their situation:
"Gay Penguins found in Japanese Aquariums"
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-12/27/content_403550.htm
This however, is not important to the analysis of the puffin.
The image best resembles the Rhinoceros Auklet, which breeds primarily on the Aleutian Islands. There, the inhabitants are called and speak Aleut. Thus, it is logical that the puffin would not be speaking Japanese or English, but Aleut.
This though process leads me to believe that the puffin was trying to say "Aang Aang," which is not "hello goodbye" as one may think. Although it is common in certain languages for the greeting and the farewell to be the same word, this is not the case in Aleut. Aang Aang translates to "Hello, yes?" which would be a polite way for a puffin to greet a customer. Therefore, there really is nothing extraordinary or "weird" about the image of the puffin; it is simply a misunderstanding.
As the Aleutians say, "Mikal sagakux awal qagaasakuq Qaqmanqix," which roughly translates as "To play, to sleep, to work; thank you, Emperor Goose!"
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