I've been traveling around Japan recently and I've come across these stickers with the letter "G" and one or two arrows in many streets in Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto.
Some streets have dozens of them. What do they mean?
asked Sep 26, 2018 at 7:02
-
11Note that yellow letters on green ground however denote escape routes in case of godzilla attacks.– PlasmaHHSep 27, 2018 at 14:55
-
1Along similar lines is when you're in California and you see "USA" spray-painted on a road or sidewalk. It's not patriotic graffiti, but a mark of a buried pipe or cable; it stands for Underground Service Alert.– Nate EldredgeSep 27, 2018 at 18:22
Add a comment
|
1 Answer
It's a marker for a buried gas pipeline. Arrow points to where the gas heads to. The marker is used to easily identify which areas need to be dug up, in case maintenance (e.g. pipe replacement) is needed, or to avoid the pipes during excavation work.
Reference (in Japanese): http://www.yotsugi.co.jp/products/detail/233
-
5Why the Latin letter G and not the first Japanese character in the Japanese words "gas"? Not universal or ISO enough?– catSep 26, 2018 at 19:11
-
@cat jisho.org/search/gas It looks like only one character would not be sufficient to know what might be meant.– AndySep 26, 2018 at 23:30
-
1
-
2gas in japanese is just ガス which is romanized as Gasu (and pronounced basically the same as terminal
uare often ghosted), and all Japanese are required to study Japanese and so will know this romanization. why not ガ? I'm not sure...– user28559Sep 27, 2018 at 12:49 -
@Andy: "G"' isn't sufficient to know what might be meant either (grain? glass? gum? gas?). It's a convention born out of the intention to keep things simple, and a similar convention could be drafted using a Japanese character.– FlaterSep 28, 2018 at 7:53