Good behaviour in the park and other signs

It’s the beginning of summer, so what better way to spend a nice balmy evening than the local park?  We all want to let off some fireworks, eat some watermelon and have a BBQ.  But not all parks are friendly towards these activities.  There’s nothing like a good warning sign telling us what to do, and this one comes complete with cute pictures.

Prohibited park activities

I found this sign in a neighbourhood park in Bunkyo-ku recently, and it has lots of what not to do.  Actually, it was a tiny park and if I was a local resident, I wouldn’t want people doing all these things in that park either.  But the sign is still a bit of fun, if only for the cute drawings and the way it’s presented.

  • Let’s stop playing ball games etc that cause trouble to others
  • Let’s stop bringing dogs into the park
  • Let’s not use fireworks that go bang or make noise
  • Let’s stop bicycles and motorcycles from entering
  • Let’s stop discarding household rubbish and other things that pollute
  • Let’s take care to look after the plants and facilities!

Remember “Don’t make a dog pee here“?  This theme is obviously a problem around residential areas of Tokyo, because there are often signs requesting dog owners to get their dogs to go somewhere else.  And if this one was literally translated into English, it would say: “Don’t make a dog pee or crap here”.

Don't make a dog crap or pee here

Finally for this post, here’s another sign with some bizarre examples of what not to do.  No tripods or megaphones?

No megaphones or tripods

It makes more sense when you know where the sign is located.  This sign is in Todaiji in Nara.  The no smoking and no graffiti prohibitions are fairly basic and obvious requirements in a wooden ancient World Heritage site.  But the no tripods and no megaphones requirements seem to be aimed at large tour groups, who would get in the way of others if they were all to pose for large group photos or interfere with the peace of the site if tourguides use microphones to get their spiel across.

By David

Lived in Tokyo between 2008-2010, which gave this blog much of its initial content. Then back to Australia and the content of this site will diversify. Originally from Melbourne, currently based in Perth.

7 comments

  1. Pingback: JapanSoc
  2. Actually, the last sign says ‘Don’t let a dog pee or crap here. Saseru can mean both ‘let’ and ‘make’, depending on the context 🙂

    Nice post though!

  3. if I knew how to make a dog pee on command, I’d be a rich woman … the Japanese have thought of everything.

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