Imaginative stuffing gunpowder into the center of an iron rod
Sadly Japanese is lacking in so many words in its vocabulary—In this case “iron rod” (tetsu bo) is a steel pipe.
Man arrested after shooting himself with home-made gun in Ibaraki
Japan Today: Wednesday 05th November, 2008 —A 20 year-old man was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of possessing a hand-made gun, in violation of the Swords and Firearms Control Law and laws prohibiting the manufacture of weapons…The gun was made from a commercially available iron rod, 17 centimeters long and with a diameter of roughly 3 centimeters, in which he put gunpowder… He told police he mistook the front end of his weapon for the back, and ended up shooting himself...more….
Seriously. English has 550,000 to 1,200,000 words but Japanese only has 120,000 words so many times translations get screwed up like this. Basically, a Japanese translation will ALWAYS choose the word “iron” when steel is meant.
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