Hot Lemon
The lack of insulation in Japanese homes and absence of central heating always has me freezing through Japanese winters… Maybe this stuff will keep me warm…
Ad Text in Japanese:
寒いあなたをほっとケン。
「寒いあなた」
In Japanese the noun modifiers come before the noun. 「寒い」means “cold” as in weather, and 「あなた」means you. So this simply means literally, “cold you”, or stated more naturally, “You that is cold”.
「ほっとケン」
This is the main point of this ad and is supposed to be some kind of a cute Japanese joke…
Because of the cold image of the advertisement, and the fact that the drink 「ほっとレモン」is a warm drink, they are using the Japanese word ほっと as a pun on the English word “hot”.
「ほっと」in Japanese means “relief”. Relief as in, when I saw my girlfriend come out of the airport exit safely I 「ほっとした」 Or, I have been worrying about taking this exam for months, and it’s finally over, 「ほっとした！」
Now, 「ケン」 is another pronunciation of the Kanji for “Dog”「犬」. You will commonly see this pronunciation in words such as 「愛犬」which means some ones pet dog that they adore.
So… If you think of it all together… The dog can save you and bring you relief in the cold… So can this warm lemon drink (it’s really quite good actually)… So it’s funny.
I bet the dog is warm too.
「カルピスのほっとレモン。」
「カルピス」is the name of the company CALPIS that every Westerner makes fun of… As their name sounds loosely like “cow piss”. The 「の」after it is the possessive 「の」showing that the phrase that follows is what CALPIS possesses.
And, what follows is our warm drink you can buy from a vending machine… 「ほっとレモン」
You know, if anyone has a fetish for ridiculously difficult Kanji, you can also write 「レモン」”Lemon” in Kanji as…
「檸檬」
That’s all!
- Harvey
Posted: January 27th, 2007 under Train Ad.
Comments: 7
Comments
Comment from Brad
Time: January 28, 2007, 10:00 pm
That’s great! I’m loving these posts of yours! Helps me understand what I see on the train every day.
Cheers!
Comment from nivonog
Time: January 29, 2007, 12:49 am
Hey, H, just a question:
down below of the poster says “win the lovelydog photo”?
too much kanji together for me.
Comment from harvey
Time: January 29, 2007, 1:06 am
Going for extra credit huh nivonog? Great!
The characters are…
「愛犬写真を大募集」(aiken shashin wo daiboshu)
愛犬 - loved dog
写真 - photo (picture)
大 - big, great, large
募集 - to recruit!
Basically, it is saying that they are now accepting photo entries (of peoples loved dogs) for their photo contest that they are having!
Those strings of Kanji are always tricky…
Hope that helped!
Comment from J Villamota
Time: January 30, 2007, 8:18 pm
One question… what about the を in 寒いあなたをほっとケン?
Which verb is implied here?
Fantastic blog by the way!
J.
Comment from harvey
Time: January 30, 2007, 9:30 pm
Hey J! Glad you are enjoying the blog! I’m worried that there aren’t enough people interested in casually learning Japanese to make this worthwhile, seems to be going alright for now though…
Hey, your question made me realize something.
There is a word in Japanese, 「ほっとけない」 which roughly translates to, “can’t leaving be… without doing something about it.” ALC translates it as “I just can’t let it go.”
Anyway, the missing verb is this 「ほっとけない」, and it is a play on the 「ほっとけん」。
For example, in slang Japanese you can say “I can’t buy it” which would normally be 「買えない」 as 「買えん」, In the same manner, 「ほっとけない」Could be 「ほっとけん」
This is deep.
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Time: February 2, 2007, 9:11 pm
[…] did I survive? Only with help from this friend of Justice, this savior of the weak and sickly - ほっとレモん [Hot Lemon]. If you have a sore throat, this piss-colored fluid proves just as soothing as […]
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Time: February 9, 2007, 6:38 pm
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