This is cute. Readers here may have heard about this already, but
there is a town in Japan called "Obama" which has gone gah-gah over
Obama, the candidate. See:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/world/asia/19japan.html
"Candidate Wins Support in the East. No, Farther East."
The reception desk photo shows a serious looking young woman in a
blue kimono standing behind a desk with a hilarious poster saying (in
Japanese), "Go Obama" and next to it "Unauthorized committee to
support Obama's candidacy" The word means "unauthorized" or "sticking
your nose in where you have no business." In other words they know it
is bad form to support a candidate in another country, but they can't
help themselves. And they are hoping to attract tourists.
"Obama" is a fairly common name in Japanese. The resemblance is not
surprising because Japanese and many African languages both always
follow a consonant with a vowel. "Obama" means "small beach" (cove)
in Japanese. Not sure what it means in Luo. "Barack" comes from
"Blessed" in Hebrew and other Semitic languages. "Hussein" is Hebrew
/ Semitic for "good, handsome."
The last U.S. presidential wannabee candidate to get widespread
support in Japan was Gen. MacArthur, in 1948. According to one
Occupation Legend, there was a large poster in downtown Tokyo that
was meant to proclaim in English:
"We pray for MacArthur's election"
Unfortunately, as often happens, they mixed up their L's and R's and
it came out:
"We play for MacArthur's erection"
Myth? Truth? Too good to be true?
- Jed
