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It's not an uncommon thing for restaurants to use clever pictography or themed-phrasing to designated their "Men's" and "Women's" restrooms. Japanese Twitter user Katsumi Nobuto (@dembumpaku) recently stumbled upon a pun they felt compelled to share recently, however, posting a photo the two restrooms they found in a ramen shop with the caption "This is the first time I've gone to a ramen shop and been impressed by something other than the taste."
The division of both restrooms hinges on a Japanese pun. In Japanese, the word for "noodles" is "men" (麺), and so the kanji is placed above the word "men" on the men's room signboard. The women's room also has a pun to display it's name, combining the "men" of "noodles" (麺) with the kanji for "delicious", which is "uma" (旨). When placed together, these kanji can be read out phonetically as "ウーメン", or "women."
Even among native Japanese speakers, many on Twitter originally did a double take but were amused and impressed by humorous restroom signage (found at ramen shop Odawara Tanmen in Kanagawa Prefecture), as well as the playful demeanor of those who run ramen stores.
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9 Comments
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ShinCebu
i hope theyll add, "Wo-men cant be women without "men"...
ArtistAtLarge
That is kawaii.
Pacific Saury
The could also use 麺 and 無麺 to indicate restrooms for people with noodles and people without noodles.
smithinjapan
I've been punning on that for ages. Glad to see some like minds.
Pukey2
Thank god they wrote Women and not Lady's. I hate that spelling.
NCIS Reruns
The last time I was in Texas I went to a bar where the only writing on the bathroom doors were horseshoes -- one with the open side facing upwards and the other with the open side facing downwards. These were not that difficult to decipher, but I would imagine some people found them confusing, to say the least. Certainly no less so than kanji.
Pacific Saury
https://preview.redd.it/o60tdcvgg1901.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=6bbb22a2aaac886cc186b1a48fb35a521cbaefc1
This is one of my favorite.
Mr Kipling
I doubt the women's toilet gets much use. Whenever I see a line outside a ramen shop its entirely made up of 30-50 year old men, a little overweight, wearing glasses and reading a manga. The sort that have never had a girlfriend in their life.
Brian Wheway
To take this to the next level, the owner of the shop could have made the sign out of wet noodles and let them dry and then painted them rather than having a sign co to make them. 2D sign!