Imbibing J-style!

Drinking alcoholic beverages, much like in uh, every country, is of utmost importance here. So here are some words to get you through the good times and, if you're like the poor "salary man" (Japanese businessman) above, maybe the bad times! (Can anyone read what the key chain says?)

Nomitomodachi (no-mee-toh-moh-da-chee) = literally "drinking" (nomi) "friends" (tomodachi)- basically means drinking buddies.

e.g. At one of our school enkais (drinking parties for offices- usually kind of formal), I mentioned that two of the (older male) teachers always seem to hang together at work parties. One of the other English teaches said, "Those two are what we call Nomitomodachi!"

Mo ippai onegaishimasu (moe EE-pie oh-ne-guy-shee-mahs) = one more (drink) please; the counting system is crazy here, so the ending for "long, thin, cylindrical items" (like a beer bottle) is "hai" (ippai = one bottle, nihai = two bottles, sanbai= three, yonhai = four, etc.)

Kanzo ga yabai (kahn-zo gah ya-bye) = literally means "[someone's] liver is in danger" Basically, that you drank so much, you're like, totally gonna get cirrhosis! As you may remember, "yabai" means "risky/dangerous" - so to the kiddies, it means "that's (dangerously) cool!"

Nomisuke (noe-mee-skay) = boozer, someone who drinks a lot.

Taikobara (tie-koh-ba-ruh) = pot belly/beer belly- what you get if you drink too much! Comes from "taiko" meaning drum- taiko drumming is a popular hobby here- and "bara" which means stomach.

Futsukayoi (foo-tsoo-ka-yoy) = hangover
e.g. It's funny- at the convenient store, they sell all kinds of drinks that are supposed to help you recover (one of them has a blonde woman wearing a business suit and glasses on it! Hilar.)

Koukai suru (KOH-kye soo-roo) = to feel regret

Honto ni sumimasen/honto ni gomen nasai (hone-toe nee soo-mee-mah-sen/goh-men nuh-sye): I'm REALLY sorry! If you wanna do it properly, make sure to do a quick, deep (I'm talking 45 degree angle here) bow that you keep until you hear your apology accepted!

Now go on, kids, get yourself some salary man friends and head off to E. 7th Street!

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.

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!

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!!!

Kawaii = Cute

This is a word I'm sure many of you know all too well- be it from watching 20 seconds of Japanese TV or from that Japanophile posterperson, Gwen Stefani. But just in case:

Kawaii (kah-wah-eee): cute; can be said about people, animals, cartoon animals, stuffed cartoon animals, and pictures of animals (particularly the cartoon kind)

I interrupt this word of the day message to say that Christina rocks!!! Thanks so much for the book (which I totally wishlisted on Amazon after you told me about it months ago)!!!! And I can't wait to Skype you while you can check out my "it doesn't really look like anyone is living there" apartment!!!! YAYYYYY!!! OK, I'm done now. Had to get it out.

OK, sorry back to business.

e.g.

Vinnie: (as soon as he closes the door of my bathroom) Ah! Kawaii!!!!!
Pam: Hey, what? What's kawaii?
Vinnie: Pam, uh... how many things in your bathroom could I possibly be talking about?!

Hm... I'm pretty sure he was talking about this:



p.s. That would be the same Vin from RU! He's teaching English over in Yokohama now (which is not far from Tokyo...but he was kind enough to come and hang in Kansai for a few days!).

Nazukashi = Nostalgic

So- if any of you guys remember (or knew me) back when I was studying at Bristol...you might remember how I morphed my AIM profile (remember those? hellz yeah, all the way back in 2003!) into a "British Slang Word of the Day." I usually tried to pepper it with stories of my local friends' verbal abuse and various awkward situations in which I'd managed to land myself. Things really haven't changed too much.

I enjoyed writing them every day so- how about a Japanese Word of the Day (a Nichi no Nihongo no Tango, if you will)? I figure the first one can bear reference to studying abroad the first time around so...

Nazukashi (nah-zoo-ka-SHEE) = Nostalgic

e.g. One night, I was at a bar in my tiny town called "Second Booze" (kickass name, I know!). This guy comes over and randomly starts talking to us. So he tells us that he lives in New York and he's here for the week and I’m like "Whuhhh? Where? When? Why? New York? Come talk to me!" Turns out- get this- not only did he just finish his Master's in Education at NYU, but we also met a couple times at Orientation! (As you may know, I worked at the international students office.) Crazy!

AND his dad used to work at the high school I currently work at (his parents are so cool, I heart them- they will be in many a future Word of the Day) AND my predecessor's predecessor just happened to be staying at their house that weekend so they called him up and I talked to the guy who had my job about four years ago. Weird night.

yet? WTF?” Wait for it…wait for it…>

So long story short, we become facebook friends. And he wrote on my wall telling me to do stuff around my apartment that he did when he was growing up (two blocks away). At the end, he goes “Wow, nazukashi! Nazukashi means nostalgic. It’s a useful word.”

Isn’t it?

Forgive me for the anticlimax. I swear, it’ll get better. And more succinct.

To Anyone that says the Japanese have no sense of humor...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZQmq5fjTG4o

OMG, this is hilarious!!! Believe it or not, this guy's stage name is actually "Hard Gay" (in Katakana- Japanese-ized- English). I think it would be too offensive to actually exist in the U.S. but you gotta love his style.

If you end up wanting to end every sentence with "Hooooooo!"- you are not alone!

Please tell me your thoughts! I will read them heartily when I get back from Korea!