Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — ¹/100 sec, f/10, ISO 450 — map & image data — nearby photos
Excellent Wordplay

Outside the gates of the forsaken and forlorn dorm of my previous post, I noticed this stand of housing magazines, and couldn't help but appreciate the wit of its title, nor its inescapable appropriateness for the location. The magazine's name in Japanese is オウチ, which is a polite way to say “home.” It's a three-syllable word (oh, eww, chi), but when romanize (written with roman letters, like English) it becomes Ouchi, which looks just like “Ouch!” except for the location of the dot at the end (! vs. i). Very witty.

Considering the common penniless student looking for a place to live, especially in today's market, the English meaning of “Ouch” seems more than appropriate. Kumano dorm is apparently fairly inexpensive, but one visit shows that there are clearly more ways to feel the housing “ouch” than financially.