The name “Mr. Rear Tire” sounded suitably absurd. And most people smiled in approval when they heard it.
Mr Rear Tire
But my favorite combination of characters was always that one meaning “Rear Tire.” It was delightfully absurd, and whenever I mentioned it to my Japanese friends, they’d smile and nod in approval. (Image source)
Mr Brilliant Trees
But since that was not my actual name, I could not officially register it, and I was not allowed to use it for official documents.
When I finally did register an official Japanese “hanko,” the bureaucrats did not allow me to use any kanji pictograms such as those in the above list. (Those kanji are reserved for native Japanese and a few naturalized citizens.)
I was allowed to use only the phonetic katakana characters spelling out “Koorin.”
Too bad. I would've liked to be officially known as "Mr Rear Tire."
Introduction to – “Notes from Under the Tatami Mats” (right-click on title)
Top 3 Cool-Sounding Girl’s Names
Top 3 Weird and Rather Wimpy-Sounding Boy’s Names
Top 5 Odd or Interesting Japanese Family Names
... and more
Links to my Other Series …
Introduction – "Intro to Vocab-ability" (right-click on title)
Guide – "Guide to Entries" (right-click on title)
Index– "Index" to all Chapters and Sections (right-click on title)
Lou Reed – "Anthology of Memorable Lyrics, Part 1" (right-click on title)
Lou Reed – "Anthology of Memorable Lyrics, Part 2" (right-click on title)
Images sourced from Google Images, unless otherwise indicated or unless my own.