SIGNS

By Mickky

Browsing

The sign with the round pictogram is asking customers not to spend too much time browsing through the magazines. This is presumably because the shop intends to reduce the number of customers browsing at one time.

Well, "browsing" doesn't seem to be a very good word to replace what is intended in Japanese in the sign. The present sign is asking us to refrain from a long "tachi-yomi" (lit. stand and read), meaning standing for a while to read a book instead of buying it. If someone is standing for too long a time to read a book while s/he doesn't mean to buy it, that would be annoying, still more now. 

Also the word "browse" reminds me of a sign I found five years ago.

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