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+--- Thread: Trouble with apparent Japanese idiom. (/thread-6703.html)
Trouble with apparent Japanese idiom. - Punknaught - 2010-11-15
Someone recently sent me an email via my phone and the message was not only peculiar but nonsensical (at least to me). It wasn't spam. And when I tried to translate it (I even used a web based translator) it still didn't make any sense to me. So I came to the conclusion that it was an idiom of some kind. I was hoping someone could shed some light on it for me.
This is the actual text: 梅月にいる？
translation: Are you on the plum tree moon?
One more thing, can someone tell me what ampontan is? Thank you in advance for your help!
Trouble with apparent Japanese idiom. - yudantaiteki - 2010-11-15
Google gives 0 hits for the phrase. Is 梅月 is a place or restaurant name, perhaps?
Quote:One more thing, can someone tell me what ampontan is?It appears to be a blog.
Trouble with apparent Japanese idiom. - Asriel - 2010-11-15
大辞泉 gives me:
ばい-げつ【梅月】
陰暦四月、または五月の異称。
and 広辞苑 says:
ばい-げつ【梅月】
陰暦5月の異称。
So it's a name for either the 4th or 5th month of the lunar calendar.
Don't ask me why you got that email.... :/
Trouble with apparent Japanese idiom. - Punknaught - 2010-11-15
I did a google search for both terms. I wouldn't trouble the good people of this forum if I hadn't. Even though google is pretty good about having information about these kinds of things, slang and colloquialisms can move pretty fast. So I was hoping someone would have come across the term, or do a better job of inferring than myself. Thanks for checking it out yudantaiteki.
I thought it might be a place at first myself based on the initial google results. Something about the way the sentence is structured makes me think that maybe it is a euphemism of some kind.
Trouble with apparent Japanese idiom. - quincy - 2010-11-15
Have you considered asking the person who sent it?
Trouble with apparent Japanese idiom. - Womacks23 - 2010-11-15
It's not an idiom but a place. There are dozens of restaurants named 梅月 in Tokyo alone.
梅月にいる？ = Are you at 梅月 ?
Trouble with apparent Japanese idiom. - Punknaught - 2010-11-15
Quincy, yes I sent a response first informing them that they had the wrong person. Then asked what it was. I got no response.
Womacks23: I figured that might be the case. The initial CAT translation was a little sucky, and translated "ni" as "on", instead of "at" or "to". Which I think is what threw me off.
Trouble with apparent Japanese idiom. - astendra - 2010-11-16
Isn't ampontan = あんぽんたん which means about the same thing as ばか?
大辞林より：「愚か者。あほう。ばか。多く，人をののしっていう語。」
Although I guess, according to google it is also the name of a blog.
Trouble with apparent Japanese idiom. - Punknaught - 2010-11-16
Thank you everyone for your help. I am going to go with name of place now but if anyone else has something else I will check back here often.