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!

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.

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.... :/

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.

Have you considered asking the person who sent it?

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 ?

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.

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.

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.