sugoi (great)

Japanese people often seem easily impressed and frequently display this by clapping like trained sea lions and exclaiming ‘sugoi!’ (that’s great!). In particular, things like magic tricks and new gadgets are guaranteed to get this reaction. Where foreigners are concerned, being able to use chopsticks or speak a few words of Japanese is often enough to elicit a round of applause and a chorus of ‘sugoi!’. (more…)

sumimasen (excuse me/thank you)

Depending on the situation it’s used in, sumimasen can be used apologetically to mean ‘please move out of my way’ or ‘I’m sorry’/’pardon me’. It can also be used to get someone’s attention politely (although it often sounds otherwise when barked loudly), as in ‘I’m ready to order now’, ‘I need another drink’ or ‘get over here!’. Additionally, it can be used to say ‘thank you’ in an apologetic way when someone has done you a favour, as in ‘thank you for going to so much trouble’ or ’sorry to trouble you’. (more…)

itadakimasu (lit=’I am receiving something’)
One of many Japanese expressions that has no direct translation in English, ‘itadakimasu’ can basically be equated with ‘saying grace’, a short prayer said by a lot of religious families (particularly in the US) to thank God before eating a meal. (more…)

Atsui (hot) and samui (cold)
It’s often said that British people like to talk about the weather unusually often compared to other nationalities, but the same is true of Japanese people.

Whereas the British tend to elaborate on the topic in more detail (‘looks like rain’ or ‘Autumn’s almost here’, for example) however, the Japanese seem content with merely stating the obvious about the temperature – they exclaim ‘atsui’ at every opportunity all summer and ‘samui’ constantly throughout the winter. (more…)

What The Japanese Say

This series will focus on the most common expressions used in the Japanese language. As anyone who’s spent a considerable amount of time in Japan will know, there are certain words and phrases you hear all the time. And I do mean ALL THE TIME, often to the point of being annoying to non-Japanese people. (more…)

3 Japanese Toilet Videos

Japanese Toilet Training

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Toilet Trivia

The Launch of Axe Deodorant in Japan

For more Axe commercials, see below. Also, three more ads can be found here.

One of the downsides of living in Japan for me has been the unavailability of good deodorant, particularly during the extremely humid summer months when temperatures soar to around 35c. The handful of Japanese deodorants that are available - such as those in Mandom’s Gatsby range, if the word ‘range’ can actually be used for such a limited selection - are a waste of time, being little more than lightly-scented air. Because of this, I’ve had to resort to stocking up on large quantities of deodorant when on overseas trips, something which has in the past resulted in some alarmed looks on the faces of shop clerks when I’ve done this during winter.
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People often use the cliché ‘old meets new’ when describing Japan, a reference to the country’s unique mixture of tradition and modernity. The cliché can also be applied, however, to several anachronisms found in Japanese culture.

Although the difference between ‘anachronism’ and ‘tradition’ is perhaps difficult to distinguish, anachronisms are basically things or practices that appear to belong to another time, the most common cultural examples being those that appear outdated because they’ve been superceded by new technology or more modern practices.

Since Japan is such a technologically advanced country, there are also numerous anachronistic examples of stuff that is so cutting edge that it seems too futuristic to be contemporary, but for the purposes of this series I’m just going to focus on the former type of seemingly-outdated anachronism.

The way we view anachronisms is, of course, highly dependent on our own culture as this informs our perceptions of the ‘here and now’ that are essential in determining what appears anachronistic. For example, someone from a developed country might regard oxen being used to plough fields in a developing country as an anachronism because they are used to seeing tractors being used for the same purpose in their country, despite the use of oxen appearing entirely contemporary to the farmers using them.

My interpretations of Japanese anachronisms are therefore influenced by my being a foreigner, yet undoutedly seem natural and contemporary to Japanese people; in this series then, I’ll be focusing on why these anachronisms became popular (i.e. their history), why they seem like anachronisms to foreigners (i.e. thinking about what they should logically have been replaced by) and considering how likely their continued use is in the future.

I’ll add the links to the list below as each post appears on Big On Japan:

• soroban (abaci)
• kasshu (cash)
• kanji (Chinese characters)
• fakkusu (fax machines)
• hanko/inkan (name stamps/seals)

For me, one of the most interesting things about comparing different cultures is the variations in interpretation of the world around these groups of people that is evident in their languages. These interpretations offer insights not only into the local environment of a particular culture, but also (to varying degrees) a unique logic in assigning names to things and a reflection of the culture’s attitudes and values.

Even in similar or neighbouring cultures there are often radically different perceptions of the same things found in their lexicons, so comparing two culturally and historically disparate languages like English and Japanese - languages that evolved on islands located off opposite ends of the Eurasian landmass under the influence of very different continental languages and cultures - naturally yields some interesting differences.

In this series I’ll be analysing these differences between interpretations of the world around us found in English and Japanese and will add the links below when I post each part on Big On Japan.

• Part 1 - Cultural Significance in Numbers of Words
• Part 2 - Direct Translations and Word Associations
• Part 3 - Onomatopoeia
• Part 4 - English Around the World