Two Crazy Japanese T-shirts

Living in Japan, Freddy sure sees his share of crazy Japanese t-shirts. He first became aware of the Japanese fetish for non-sensical English while reading Dave Barry's "Dave Barry Does Japan" about 13 years ago. Mr. Barry mentions several T-shirts he observed while spending a Sunday afternoon in Harajuku's Yoyogi Koen area, where bands line the street a play bad music. Some of the shirts Freddy remembers said things like "Nurse Mentality", "Circuit Beaver", "King Fucker Chicken". Then, several years later, Freddy discovered a site called engrish.com, where there is a treasure trove of funny Japanese English submitted by people mostly living in Japan. One particular T-shirt from this website that Freddy remembers was submitted by a user who saw a 13 year old boy walking around wearing a shirt that said "Future F.A.G" Although engrish.com is an amusing site, the owner, unfortunately feels that some of the "engrish" needs further explanation and he always adds his own commentary beneath the pictures. More often than not, the picture was funnier before he said anything. Freddy once even wrote to him to suggest that he let the "engrish" stand on it's own and it didn't need further explanation. Now Freddy took a friendly, non-confrontational tone in his message, a sort of, "Why don't you..." or "Have you considered ..." type of suggestion. Yet, the owner took on a very defensive mood in his response, explaining to me that everyone loves his comments and they were not going anywhere. He even directed me to a FAQ regarding this topic, where he says "a clear majority of the site visitors prefer that the commentary stays. Freddy just wonders if so many people enjoy the commentary, why he needs to post a FAQ addressing the issue. Well, clearly, there is a significant amount of people who don't enjoy the commentary as well. Anyhow, Freddy is becoming distracted. He will just let the Engrish.com website owner continue to live in his own special world, where he is the funniest guy around.

He meant to tell you all about two or three fun Japanese T-shirts he has recently seen. Two of them belong(ed) to his son. The first one, he has grown out of, but it was one of Freddy's favorites. It was a shirt for a 1 year old, with a picture of a little bird on it and the text which said, "It is a shameful thing, the bird which soils it's own nest." What a perfect, uplifting message for a baby. Actually, Freddy thinks the most impressive thing about this shirt is that there is actually no grammar mistakes on it. Perhaps someday, Freddy will get around to making his own version of this desgin for EntropicTees. The other Tee also belongs to his son and he just got it the other day. It has a lady bug on the front, and the text says, "I am a justice". Freddy thinks it would be a bit better if it just said, "I am justice", but it's not bad. Freddy thinks this is a great shirt for a two year old. See below.

The other shirt Freddy saw was worn by another father at his daughter's kindergarten and it illustrated that Japanese sometimes have no idea what they are actually wearing. In fact, Freddy was close to being shocked at seeing this t-shirt, especially since it was at church, on a Sunday morning, worn by a member of the church. (Freddy's daughter's Kindergarten is run by the church). Anyhow, the shirt had a picture of a gang member holding a cop in a headlock from behind and the text said, "Make me come, faggot!" This desgin is not likely to ever make it into Freddy's store.

Freddy did add two new designs to his store this week. Visit the new products section to have a look.