May I ‘handle–keep her’?
At tonight’s Bonenkai/End-of-the-Year Party, our rather robust waitress leaned over to place the beers we ordered our table when this caught my eye. Perhaps to prevent putting someone’s eye out, she was thoughtfully wearing this strategically-placed campaign sticker over her right nipple. 
Phonetically written in Japanese were the English words, “Handle Keeper.”
Of course I was compelled to ask in English to my Japanese coworkers, “May I handle–keep her?”
The above poster in the bar gave the rest-of-the-story about the “Handle Keeper” campaign. For some delightfully demented reason, Japanese use the English word “Handle” for steering wheel. In the “Handle Keeper” campaign, the government combined Handle/steering wheel with the word “Keeper” as in a goal keeper who saves the team to form a new word in Japanese for Designated Driver for their anti drunk driving campaign.
PS: Much to my surprise, when I facetiously asked my English-speaking coworkers, “May I handle–keep her?” the well-endowed waitress cheerfully replied in fluent English, “Sure!”
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December 18th, 2008 at 9:24 am
Stop the cocktease… where is the Homemade_Porn@3>yen category ?
December 18th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Oh ye of little faith.
Random kinky offers are one of the few advantages of living here in the Land-of-Concrete(tm).
That’s a real photo. Sadly the photo is not of my charming waitress, but of the Handle Keeper campaign girl. Watch…
Hear the campaign song: Utao ! Handle Keeper Oen Song (sic).
Also read the Handle Keeper blog (machine translation).
December 18th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
I’m more in the Land -Of-The-Ricefields… Them locals are scared of them fureigners… with their definition of foreigners starting with folks from the next village that -according to them- don’t even speak the same proper japanese…
Aside from Tokyo (where I spend less than the time of a good diarrhea) this country is a big lesson in humility… I feel like a kaiser just by having indoor plumbing…