The Rise of Pooh

The Japanese are absolutely mental about Winnie the Pooh: his popularity even rivals that of Hello Kitty. And you can forget about Mickey Mouse and all those other Disney characters - Pooh is number one by a long way in Japan. When people go to Tokyo Disneyland they don't make a beeline for Space Mountain or Pirates of the Caribbean - they head straight for "Pooh's Hunny Hunt".

Unfortunately, in his transition to the Land of the Rising Sun, everybody's favourite bear has lost his age-old moniker of "Winnie", and is now simply branded as "Pooh".

Which leads me to an essay one of my second year students wrote about her trip to Tokyo Disneyland. It began something like this:

"I love Disney!!!!!
I love Pooh!!!!!
My room is full of Pooh!!!"

At which point one of the Japanese English teachers asked me why I was doubled up in laughter. Which meant I had to launch into an explanation of what "poo" means in English. In the end I couldn't think of a polite way to explain it, so I resorted to hand gestures. Which was probably worse actually, when I think about it.