Japanese Me

There’s a neighborhood in Kawasaki called Mizonokuchi.  At first I thought it was Mi*zu*nokuchi, or literally “mouth of the water”… maybe where a creek emptied into a river, or a river into the ocean.  Romantic.  Poetic.  Then I looked up the kanji:

溝ノ口

It turns out mizo actually means “ditch”.  Mouth of the ditch.

Not so poetic.