I was out in Futako Tamagawa walking around with my parents this past week, and I noticed this as we walked up to the entrance of the Garden Island annex of Takashimaya:
Yup, those are trucks parked in a special spot for 納品車 – vehicles making deliveries. Closer inspection reveals…
…that the regular parking lot is just over to the right.
This sign was interesting to me because it was the first time I’ve seen 納品 used for actual, physical deliveries. I’d used it often in the office, as I wrote when I introduced the compound, but it was always in regards to nebulous, digital deliveries. Very cool to see it out in the real world.
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Always awesome to see obscure words/kanji compounds used in real situations.
Close but not quite. The kanji says “Place to park your wheels”. “Regular parking” in kanji would be 駐車場, whereas the sign in the picture reads 駐輪場. The difference in the middle character distinguishes the number of wheels. Motorcycles and bikes are often collectively referred to as 二輪車 meaning a vehicle with two wheels (the kanji in the middle means wheels, hence the literal meaning “place to park your wheels”). Therefore the sign is directing you towards a parking lot for two wheeled vehicles as indicated in the parenthesis below. I guess Takashimaya didn’t have enough space for cars so they allocated some space to squeeze in some bikes and scooters. A minute difference but maybe keep your eyes open a tiny bit wider.
Ha, nice catch! I think “don’t be a dumbass” is probably closer to the truth – I recognize 駐輪場 but just read the compound too quickly.