Bend over

Everybody has seen what can happen to the English language in Japan. It's famous. Less well known is that when English words are abbreviated here they can sometimes get cut off in odd places. This can have unexpected results.

Yesterday a friend told me that when she was coming through customs recently, back to Japan after a lovely holiday elsewhere, one of the questions the customs officer asked her was, "What are you doing in Japan?" (This sort of question should be struck from the list of questions to ask long-term residents as it is likely to bring on an existential crisis if you actually start to think about it.)

My friend was tired. It had been a long flight. She pointed to her passport and replied, "It's written on my visa. I'm an Ass Professor."

The customs officer waved her through.