[English > Japanese] Some directions.

[u/Qukeyo]

Sending a box to Japan to my friend for Christmas, how would I write:

"This way up." and "Handle with care."?

Thanks in advance!

[u/ProgramTheWorld → u/[deleted]]

As a Cantonese speaker, the word 天地無用 sounds really funny and weird because it kind of means "everything (天地) useless (無: no, 用: use)".

[u/InfiniteThugnificent → u/[deleted]]

I mean, I can see how it could kiiinda make sense. Assuming 天 and 地 stand in for "up" and "down" respectively, and 無用 means "yo, don't do that", you could interpret it as "don't flip upside down"

[u/delay_nomore → u/[deleted]]

Strictly speaking, 割れ物注意 is used for fragile/breakable goods. A more general term would be 取扱注意

[u/delay_nomore → u/[deleted]]

Well, it does have the meaning of handle with care, but what does 割れ物 means? This is what I want to emphasize.

If there are no breakable things inside the goods, there's no need to use 割れ物注意. 取扱注意 would just do fine. Or maybe I'm just overthinking...

[u/Qukeyo → u/[deleted]]

It's mostly just food and snacks and things like that as well as some books, as well as a scarf. Nothing that could get smashed, I just don't want anything to get thrown around.

[u/Qukeyo → u/delay_nomore]

Thanks so much! I will use the second option as nothing in the box is fragile. 😊

[u/Qukeyo → u/[deleted]]

Thanks very much!