芭

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plantain

On-Yomi: バ

Koohii stories:

1) [to_nihon] 10-1-2009(28): A plantain is a flowering fruit that looks kind of like a banana, and of course bananas look sort of like a comma, so you might even say that they have a sort of comma-design.

2) [astridtops] 30-9-2006(10): Southern cities in Europe often have plantains for street decoration. The light filtering through these plants makes for a nice light mosaic on the streets.

3) [thairob] 4-8-2008(6): Little known fact is that the RUBIC'S CUBE was inspired by PLANTAIN FLOWERS. The flowers are very colorful and kids in third world countries routinely pick them and play puzzle games with them. The Rubic's Cube founder saw this and it sparked the idea that turned him into a billionaire…

4) [adrianbarritt] 25-1-2008(5): The plantain is a giant banana. If you look closely at it's flower you will see it looks like a mosaic of bananas.

5) [Doodsaq] 12-8-2009(3): Due to the plantain's phallic appearance, NHK only broadcasts images of the plant, flowers and all, that are covered by a mosaic.

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