Picture Puzzle

Here is a picture puzzle. The restaurant is immediately recognizable from the large yellow ‘M’; the language is clearly not English, yet the traffic is driving on the left.

The photograph was taken through a car windscreen since the windscreen wiper and car bonnet are clearly visible. What do you see at the end of the bonnet?

I took the picture through the windscreen of a Rolls-Royce in Osaka, the second city of Japan. I thought the counterpoint of the three cultures, Japanese, American and English, irresistibly droll.

What was I doing cruising around downtown Osaka in a Roller? I was there on business, flogging high-power electronics to the Japanese. My company’s business partner in Japan was an old British trading-house; among other things, including Scotch Whiskey and aeroplanes, they imported Rolls Royce cars. They kept a demonstrator at the Osaka office and used it to visit customers. They also imported Ferraris, and the only time I ever sat in one was in their showroom.

---