Ooh, our first sign submission:
Gah, it’s so wee and hard to make out! Do you hate it? *
From Scott, who works as a translator in a building a few hundred meters from my desk. He says:
the text reads: 月極有料駐車場
I think this is one of those signs that people see and understand, but might have a hard time reading because of the first two characters, which are read つきぎめ and mean monthly or by the month.
So, we have:
月極有料 ( つきぎめ ゆうりょう）
駐車場 ( ちゅうしゃじょう ）
(i.e. a parking lot that charges a monthly fee)
—
SIDENOTE: Dude in my office said (rough translation): “Yeah, that’s a mysterious bit of Japanese, right? Lots of kids would get that wrong, pronouncing it like “tsukigoku” or something.”
Then he handed me a kanji history of 極 (**), which apparently referred to a tree in a very high location in ancient Chinese. Yup.
* ‘Cause it’s pieces of you-ooh?
** We also see this kanji lots in words like 北極 (north pole), etc.
