If you live in Asia, you’re probably used to seeing Engrish phrases everywhere. When you’ve grown up reading and writing in kanji, hiragana, etc., the “foreign-ness” of English writing and phrases adds an air of mystery and style. But it’s exactly the same in the west too—people will buy all kinds of products with kanji characters written on them whether or not they know what they mean.
Here are some examples of decked-out cars with random, nonsensical Japanese phrases on them that have Japanese netizens laughing their socks off over.
Earlier this week, Twitter user @SUZUKAS15 posted a few photos from foreign car shows of some colorfully decorated cars sporting a number of logos and stickers affixed by their drivers. Among the flair are random Japanese phrases which really don’t have any business being on cars, but are still giving Japanese Twitter-users a good laugh.
https://twitter.com/SUZUKAS15/status/666563573523419137▼ “Super Kawaii”
Okay, so this first one isn’t that strange, just a bit out of place on these rather un-kawaii (cute) cars!
▼ フロントガラス- furonto garasu
An example of wasei-eigo, or a Japanese word taken from English terms, “front glass” is what the Japanese call the windshield. At least this driver labeled the car part correctly!
▼くたばれ- kutabare.
Kutabare is a rather rough slang term, used along the same lines as “f*** you!”, “shove it”, “eat sh**”, etc. Them’s fightin’ words!
▼ ハムサンド- hamu sando
This last one is most definitely our favorite, because nothing says “check out my cool car bro” like a ham sand(wich)!
Commenters are really enjoying the randomness as much as we are:
“Their sense of quality is really shining through.”
“I love this, lol.”
“Ham sandwich loooool! Too cool!”
“I can understand kutabare and hamusando, but furonto garasu just seems kinda lonely, lol.”
With things like clothes and car decals, having random nonsense Japanese phrases on it isn’t a huge deal, as those items aren’t permanent. But if you’re deciding to get a tattoo, you might want to be extra careful and make absolutely sure you know what you’re getting inked onto you!
Source: Twitter/@SUZUKAS15

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