This name of a shop is weird to Japanese but funny

 In Liverpool ONE, the shopping complex in the centre of the city, there is a shop called "KENJI". I think it's relatively new. 

At first sight, it was already weird for me. The reason is simple. Because KENJI is Japanese guy's name. So when I saw the shop from outside where I took the photo, I could see the color is mainly white-and-pink-ish, all the flowers from ceiling, and many plush toys or nuigurumi (ぬいぐるみ) by the window and on the shelf. All the materials given, my brain concluded that this shop is mainly for girls. Which is totally fine. It's just the name of the shop.

I think if the name was more gender-neutral name, I didn't feel weird at all. It's just KENJI is really a man's name. When I hear KENJI, I think of a guy with a muscle. KENJI is a man in a man, name wise. If you try to type KENJI in Japanese on keyboard, there many kanji (漢字) variations for the names, and they are all for man's name. 賢治、健司、憲二 and so on. Feel free to search these names.

宮沢賢治 (Kenji Miyazawa) was not a muscular man, I guess, because he was a novelist and alive around 1900. But he was not a average novelist, he is regarded as one of the best novelist and poet in Japanese literature. I think it's impossible to find Japanese people who don't know Kenji Miyazawa. His work called 注文の多い料理店 is my all time favorite. Witty and humorous at its finest.

山内健司 (Kenji Yamauchi) is also not a muscular man from what I see through the screen, but he is famous comedian in Japan. He's a member of a duo called Kamaitachi (かまいたち), and their manzai and conte are super funny to watch. The one with "Who did it?" is one of my many favorites, situated in typical Japanese classroom where a teacher tries to find who did something bad. 

坂口憲二 (Sakaguchi Kenji) is a muscular guy, finally. He is an actor, and because he was appearing for famous TV show called 筋肉番付 (Kinniku Banzuke), meaning Muscle Ranking List, which was about atheletes and mucular celebrities compete in muscle-using matches, people recognize him as a good actor with good athleticism. 

Enough about introducing famous Kenjis in Japan, So please visit Kenji the shop, inside was actually interesting with many plush toys of course but also stationery and all the cute stuff.

https://g.page/kenjiliverpool?share

CJ