A. 川崎　B. 東芝　C. 日産　D. 任天堂　E. 日立　F. 本田　G. 三菱

Before we dive into this, it was brought to my attention that I did not explain all the choices in the puzzle from two weeks ago.  I thought that I had covered them over the course of the entry, but apparently one or two got left out.  So, the answers to the historical period puzzle were: A. Edo B. Kamakura C. Jomon D. Nara E. Heian F. Muromachi.

Now let’s get to work.  Our first guess, as always, came from Dragon, who identified E as Honda.  She felt that the character on the left represented a window, and cars have windows, and Honda makes cars, ergo, E is Honda.  It was a good plan, except that she made the fatal mistake of assuming that the kanji for “window” looks anything at all like a window.  But even if that were not the case, could it not also have been Toshiba?  They make computers with Windows.  Get it?  Get it?  Anyway, E is Hitachi, a company that does not make cars but does make something even cooler: bullet trains (and yes, they do have windows).

Next up was Theoman, who immediately spotted B as Toshiba.  We can’t even be mad at him, though, for we know that his long struggles as the owner of a Toshiba-made laptop must have given him infinite familiarity with the company, a familiarity that I am certain bred a fair amount of contempt.  “Know thine enemy,” said Sun Tzu, or one of those guys; now Theoman knows their name.  A Fan, on the other hand, owns a Honda (and a Toshiba computer), so it would seem like he was ideally positioned to sweep this puzzle.  But he made the curious choice of D, implying that his Honda had a wide enough front seat to fit two humans and a large dog.  While we can give him minor points because the character in the middle is somewhat similar to the one for dog, his theory falls short.  The characters actually represent him and his wife playing a game on the Nintendo Wii, with the dog lying between them in the most inconvenient position possible to prove how much he loves them.  D is Nintendo.

Our final contestant was Shirley, who went for G.  She had the right idea but the wrong corporation.  There were in fact three car companies on the list: C, Nissan, which nobody was interested in; G, Mitsubishi, which might be better for cruising down a two-lane highway than your stereotypical Honda; and F, the elusive Honda itself, with that “window” on the right side.  As we all know, windows are the defining feature of an automobile.  Just ask A Fan’s dog.

This week’s You Forgot About Poland Award goes to A, Kawasaki.  What have they ever done for us?

But after all that work, you must be exhausted.  Isn’t it time for a break?  Luckily for you, the upcoming puzzle is about holidays.  You get to learn all about the days that the Japanese get to take off but we don’t.  Theoman’s task will be to locate Constitution Memorial Day, while the rest of you can concentrate on Coming of Age Day.

A. 敬老の日　B. 建国記念の日　C. 憲法記念日　D. 成人の日

E. 体育の日　F. 天皇誕生日