Mr. Japanese Language Person

With apologies to Dave Barry, Mr. Japanese Language Person must make an appearance today. Last month, while reading The Toronto Star, Mr. JLP noticed that the name of that venerable Kyoto temple, Myoshinji, had been misspelled as Miyoshinji. This occurred not once, but five times, including in the headline. To make matters worse, the correct spelling was used in the sidebar. Mr. JLP dutifully put down his newspaper and went on-line to report the error. He checked back at the end of the day to discover nothing had been changed. Since a good friend of Mr. JLP had already blogged about the mistake, he decided to not let it trouble him further.

Weeks passed, and the uncorrected error began to bother Mr. JLP more and more. He couldn’t help but recall the classic lesson in phrasebook Japanese taught to all tourists needing emergency medical attention: if one is in trouble (presuming one is conscious) ask for the nearest byōin, not biyōin. The casual reader might well wonder what difference an extra “i” can make. Well, it is because byōin-びょういん（病院）means hospital, while biyōin-びよういん（美容院）means beauty parlor. Mr. JLP is just as certain that you do not wish to surprise some poor hairdresser with an awkward request for an emergency appendectomy as he is that the correct spelling of みょうしんじ (妙心寺) is Myōshinji, although he will not insist on putting the little line over the "o". Sadly, about the only thing Miyoshinji could mean is 見よう神事. Imagine your poor taxi driver’s frustration as he circles the streets of Kyoto searching for a performance of the ancient “Let’s Look Ritual” while you drain your travel budget over a single, solitary “i”.

And a lower-case one at that.

If you would like to see Mr. Japanese Language Person become a regular feature of Over a Hedge, please leave a question in the comments section. Mr. Japanese Language Person would be only too happy to assist with the simple ones.