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One thing I feel I always should be doing more of in this blog is pointing out the myriad curiosities of life in Japan. And yet try as I might I can never seem to find anything strange enough to warrant your attention. I’ve never found a vending machine dispense anything more interesting than an ice cream and Japanese people never stop me in the middle of the street to engage me in pointless chatter. Even the trains, supposedly an endless series of Engrish advertisements, groping salarymen and pornographic comics has failed me. It seemed as if my time in Japan would uncover nothing particularly unusual to Western eyes. That is until today. I am pleased to announce McDonald’s, that venerable institution, has come to the rescue.

I would like to begin by saying I am something of a junk food connoisseur. Some people may enjoy sampling the local delicacies when they move to a new city, I like to try out the hamburgers. It is true I have a propensity for junk food that has yet to impact on my figure. I realise I have now all but invited fate to send me colon cancer. I’ll be sure to keep you up to date as that progresses.

Sometimes I enjoy packets of chips (although the selection in this country is terrible) and sometimes I enjoy chocolate bars (the selection of which is even worse). And sometimes I eat at McDonald’s. Waking up late this morning I had no time to pack a proper a lunch and so at 12.30 this afternoon I wandered down to the local Golden Arches.

Now what I want to point out was not something to do with food. It was instead something I noticed on the paper placement that your meal is put on. ドナルド・マクドナルド. At first I couldn’t work out what this was supposed to be. The second word was cleared ‘McDonald’ (or ‘McDonald’s’) but the first word left me stumped. Occasionally I find katakana incredibly difficult to read. Although the words are almost always English in origin the transformation they go through as they are assimilated into Japanese sometimes renders them incomprehensible. So I decided to write it out in romaji. I find that often helps.

So there it was: Donarudo Makudonarudo. Then the penny dropped. I recognised the little logo of the house in the bottom corner of the placemat. This was an advertisment for Ronald McDonald House Charities. Except it wasn’t called Ronald McDonald House. It was called Donald McDonald House.

Maybe it’s me and my 6-year-old level of humour (I still find it hilarious when someone adds ‘on wheels’ to the title of Wikipedia entries) but the name Donald McDonald is so silly it can’t help but crack me up. At first I was content to leave it at that but when I thought about writing it up for the blog it seemed like I probably ought to put a little bit more effort into it. Some research if you will. Who is Donald McDonald and what was the problem with Ronald McDonald?

Let me begin by saying I’ve never understood why clowns are supposed to be scary. I don’t think they’re particularly funny (I have a discerning 6-year-old sense of humour) but I don’t think they’re particularly scary either. That was until I went looking on the net for pictures. I am now ready to completely revise my original position. I’m not sure what it is but something is very, very wrong here. I cannot for the life of me understand how this guy is supposed to make children want to come to McDonald’s. Little wonder, if this story is true, that the venerable mascot may be up for replacement (although I still see him around everywhere).

Unfortunately the reasons for the name change aren’t so easy to come by. So far I’ve found a few people saying it’s because ‘Ronald’ is difficult for the Japanese to pronounce (although is ‘Donald McDonald’ really any easier?) but nothing official. Wikipedia notes the different but doesn’t make much of it. I’m willing to believe pronunciation was the reason McDonald’s isn’t really even known as ‘McDonald’s’ over here but instead the Japanified ‘Makudonarudo’.

All of this really invites the question, if the name was too difficult why bother with the character in the first place? Does McDonald’s really need a mascot? The Happy Meal almost always features characters from TV and film, why have an ugly clown? Just so there’s someone to put on a bench out front? I don’t know. Maybe kids go wild for the guy. I suppose if there wasn’t a Ronald (or Donald) who would teach the kids to do this?