Monday 30 June 2008

Let's Talk about Skeevy McGees!

Since I think your (read: Lux and Stine's) maturity level is about the same as mine, I hope you'll appreciate today and tomorrow's (a surprise topic!) posts. Today we'll be talking about...

hentai (henn-tye): meaning "transformed," it's pretty much your run-of-the-mill pervert; usually said to people you know when they're acting creepy (but as a joke).

e.g. When any non-Japanese male here encounters a Japanese woman. Exaaactly.

sukebee (skay-bay): essentially, a lech.

e.g. There was a crazy guy here (who was super cool, but liked the sauce) and later into the night, he tended to flirt with everyone (regardless of gender, and the fact that he was married). He also had the habit of high fiving people and going "I'm Sukebee Jason!" Awesome.

chikan (chee-kahn): this is "the guy-on-the-subway-that-flashes-and-gropes-women," the highest echelon of the Japanese big perv.

e.g. We were getting off a crowded bus somewhere in the middle of suburban Kyushuu (the large Southerly island of Japan) and one of my friends (Jon) yells, "Chikan jenai yo!" (I'm not a pervert, really!) cos he had to touch like a jillion women on the way out. The entire bus of Japanese people cracked their shizz up.

seku hara (seh-koo-ha-rah): the shortened form of sexual harassment. People here love abbreviating English words into barely recognizable "Japanese" words (eakon = air conditioner, pasokon = Personal Computer, etc.)

e.g. It's pretty common to hear this when people who work together go out drinking. I've never heard it said as anything but a joke though! I guess it's pretty much the same as back home.

Friday 27 June 2008

Age Is Just a Number...A Seriously Important Number

Japan has a weird relationship with age. You have no idea how many times I've met people and honestly could guess their age to be anywhere from 21 to 55. It's friggin' weird. So here are some age-related words!

Kurisumasu Keki (kris-mas kay-kee): Christmas cake

e.g. It's the delicious treat (seen below) enjoyed by Japanese people during the holidays. For some reason, they believe that Americans eat this and fried chicken (YES, I'm talking KFC here, people!) on Christmas!!

Anyway, it has another meaning...it means an unmarried woman after the age of 26. Because nobody wants Christmas Cake the day after no matter how sweet and pretty it looks! This is, what I like to call, LAME.

Himitsu (hee-mee-tsu): secret

e.g. You'd think that because of this horrible Christmas cake business, people would keep pretty quiet about their ages. Wrong (or "Chigau"!)!!! People ask me my age all the time- and people often like talking about how old they are. But also, being a foreign person here means that most things about your life are about as UNsecret as it gets. I have to admit though, it's kind of flattering to have people talk about all the random stuff I do everyday. Now I know how Britney feels!

Toshi desu kara (toe-shee dess kah-rah): Because I'm old.

e.g. I use this phrase all the time- it always gets laughs! Like I was at a barbecue the other day and some dude was like "Why aren't you drinking?" And I just said "Toshi desu kara." And he was like "Ehhhhhhh? You're younger than I am!" Maybe, but he doesn't have to worry about becoming a holiday pastry!

Wednesday 25 June 2008

Extreme Slang Update!

Gomen (sorry)!!! I haven't updated in months! Sorry to all my loyal fans (or well, fan...Lux!)!

Here's some more slang to keep ya'll going. These are all "ki" words (get it? KEY WORDS? OMG.). Anyway ki or "気" means "feeling."

Kimoi (kee-moy): Gross!
e.g. I was hanging with the English Club at my school and one of the girls picks up this nasty thing off the ground (it looked like a bunch of old cigarettes stuck together) and goes- I'm not joking- "Oishiso!" (looks tasty!) Turns out it was a dessicated honeycomb...and people really do eat those! Anyway, when she put it in her bag, one of the other girls (who, by the way, is exactly like me when I was her age- totally a nerd but really energetic!! She's hilarious!!!) yelled, "KIMO!" (dropping the "i" makes it extra exclamation-y, I think!)

Kimazui (kee-ma-zoo-ee): Awkward; embarrassing
e.g. This is a word I use almost daily... which is about as often as I used the word awkward back home!

Kimochi (kee-mo-chee): emotion, feeling
e.g. So on my fave show ever (I am a total Japanese television addict now), Zettai Kareshi ("Absolute Boyfriend" or, its English title, "My Flawless Robot Boyfriend"), the main star is a robot designed to be the perfect man. As the show goes on, he develops human-like "kimochi" so his non-robot girlfriend actually begins to fall for him!!! Another phrase I learned from this show was "Konai de" (ko-nye-day) which means "Don't come near me!"
If you wanna watch it, you can go to veoh.com and download it! Below is the advert for it!
That's all for now! More to come!!!

And in other news, I get to be one of the Orientation Leaders for JET Orientation in Tokyo, so I get to- as fellow JET Katie P likes to say- freak out the squares!!! ("Squares" meaning incoming JETs!) That and I get to put that crazy enthusiasm ("genki"-ness here in Japan. OH!!! Another ki word!!!) to good use!

Yay! I hope to be better at this in the future- thank you to Lux for pushing me to start posting again!!!