I bet we all know what it's like to see your favorite setting reflected in the world around you in odd ways. It's the mark of any obsessed fan.

Does anybody have a feeling that somebody might just go near the sign and write the last 2 characters?

If I could be asked "So, what about it?" that'd be all there was to it, but when I spot something with letters slightly different from something I know, I just get a "Darn it...almost but not quite" feeling. :-) I Googled it as a test, and there were loads of places with this kind of name.

Today, there's a Touhou convention called the Friends of BunBunMaru News Association at Tokyo's Miyako Exibition Center. I'll be participating, so I look forward to meeting everyone who'll be attending! As it happens, there's also an all-genre con in Sendai, Miracle of the Woods. My Sanae-san's going to that one, so regards to everyone in Sendai!

Reader-added tags include "Touhou Scarlet" (or "Eastern Red"), "Meiling" and "Won't you come and eat?"

The survey knows some places all sound alike:

What words are often used in restaurant names?
• Founder
• Main Branch
• Original
• 1st Generation
• Ultimate

Personally I've never been able to see that sort of thing since I live in one of the smaller cities, but I've seen acronyms that are the same as the games.

If restaurants used the name ultimate that would guarantee me going there more often, but the realistic name, atleast for my area is probably main branch.

I've seen quite a few restaurants with "Original" in their names, but I haven't seen any of the other four before, which seems odd to me (especially Ultimate, which I would have expected to see all over the place in the U.S.).

As an addendum, I'm not sure how many of those would actually apply to English-language restaurant names. The first, third and fourth are similar, but subtly different. "Founder" (元祖) is sort of like "ancestor", "pioneer" or "originator". "Original" (本家) can also mean "originator", but is more like "head house" or "birthplace". "1st Generation" (初代) can also mean "founder", so...picking suitably different words for each that matched their meanings without overlapping one another too much is a tricky business.

I remember the character for Chen (橙) because there's a Chen's restaurant down the street with it on the sign.

If I saw something like that, I would do a double take. I'd consider trying out the food just for fun, and I'd probably shop in the letters after taking a photo of the place.

For the poll, I see ultimate a little; it does get one's attention.

Meiling is probably the most connected word to that Restaurant.

I would say that the word I see most here in the U.S., especially here in the south, would be "famous".

Even though I really wouldn't say I know Japanese (let alone Chinese) I often get a good feeling when I recognize characters in the signs of Chinese restaurants. 東方 happens to be a common one in those.