風に
According to the notes, the 風 is the noun ふう meaning “wind”, which has extended meanings of “appearance”, “style”, “manner”, or “tone”. I thought it was interesting that they described it like this because I feel like when it’s read alone as ふう, it’s always the other meanings and never the wind…
S という風に is used when one wants to quote something as if to evoke in the mind of the listener the manner in which the original communication was made. The meaning is “the content to the effect that ~”. It can also have a meaning of “in such a way that ~”. I feel like I constantly forget the exact nuance of the S という風に construction when I see it, so I’ll try to remember this.
N1 風の N2 means N2 with a style of N1.
The adverbial phrase 風に can be replaced by ように if the construction is S という風に. If it’s {こんな/そんな/あんな/どんな}風に, it has to be replaced by {この/その/あの/どの}ように. N 風に has to be replaced by N のように.
Here's an example from the Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling experimental Inspiration show on 2024.01.06, where there was a battle royal to determine the number one contender for the Princess of Princess Championship. (Kamiyu as usual had to make my life as a fan translator harder haha by saying an untranslatable pun...)
Hard mode: here’s the video.
上福「渡辺未詩、aka筋肉。ピンクの筋肉ピンニクがああやって一番に勝って、先輩後輩とかあんまり言うのあれですけど一番あのなかではキャリアがあれなんですけど、あんな風に勝ってみんな蹴散らして、先輩たちね、未詩ちゃんのこと教えてる人たちはとても教え甲斐があるんじゃないでしょうか。ああやって抜かしていっていくみたいな感じが。私は普段すっごい練習して頑張って頑張ってっていうのではなくて、未詩ちゃんはずっと頑張っててほかの人もなんですけど。なんかこう、頑張ってる人見ると邪魔したくなっちゃうみたいな気持ちがあって、頭使って上手いことやろうって。なんかよくめちゃくちゃ子役からずっと歌の練習めっちゃしてもなかなか売れない歌手がいると思いきやTikTokでちょっと歌ってみたらソッコー紅白出るみたいな人も世の中いるんで、そっちになろうかなと思ったんですけど、やっぱプロレスってのはね練習しなきゃいけないっていうのを目の当たりにしたんでね、これからデビューする練習生のみなさん未詩ちゃんを見習って練習をたくさんしましょう！サヨナラ！」
Kamifuku: “Miu Watanabe, a.k.a. Muscles. Pink Muscles—Pinkles—took first place, and I don’t generally talk in terms of seniors/juniors, especially when it comes to career length, but winning like that and kicking everyone out must mean that for our senpais, for the people who train Miu-chan, there’s value and reward in teaching her. It feels like she’s overtaking me. I’m really not all about training hard and doing my best all the time, but Miu-chan always works hard, and others are like that, too. When I see someone working hard, I feel like I want to get in their way, so I will try to use my brain and do something skillfully. There are singers who’ve been practicing since they were child actors and they hardly sell at all, but there are also people in this world who sing a little on TikTok and then immediately appear on like Kohaku, so I thought I should be there, too, but I had to face the harsh reality that you do in fact have to practice with wrestling. So, to all the trainees who will debut from now on, let’s all follow Miu-chan’s example and train a lot! Goodbye!”
がち
Side note, but I noticed that this book has a tendency to (がち lol) use 明日 instead of 明日. I feel like in the media I read/watch, it’s almost always あした, so I wonder why they made that editorial choice. Was あす more commonly used when this dictionary was published? Am I overestimating just how much more common あした is?
For this entry, the notes specify that がち is usually used to express an undesirable tendency in someone or something. When it modifies a noun, either の or な can be used. Also, it can be paraphrased using the adverbs よく “often” or しばしば “frequently”. It’s often used with adverbs like ややもすると, ともすると, とかく for emphasis.
The suffix ぎみ can also express the idea of “tend to” in some contexts. The major difference is that がち usually describes a general tendency in someone or something while ぎみ describes a visible indication of a tendency. In addition, ぎみ also expresses the idea of “touch of” or “a little”. がち doesn’t have this meaning.
Couldn’t find any examples of this one in TJPW. I do have a 日本語の森 video to share which talks about the differences between ぎみ, がち, and っぽい.
がたい
According to the notes, がたい is used when it is virtually impossible for someone to do something. So 許しがたい in key sentence A is equivalent to 許せない.
がたい, にくい, and づらい all express similar ideas (difficulty in doing something), but がたい is usually only used in written language or formal speech, and the other two can be used in both written and spoken language. Also, unlike がたい, にくい and づらい don’t imply virtual impossibility.
がたい and づらい can be used only with verbs which require an agent, but にくい can be used with verbs that don’t require an agent. And づらい is used when doing something is physically (sometimes psychologically) hard on the agent, so it always describes undesirable situations.
I found a sad example... This was from the TJPW press conference on 2023.05.08 when Yuka Sakazaki announced that she was going to be graduating at the end of the year...
Here’s the transcript and the full video (I’m not going to timestamp it).
――卒業を決めた一番の理由は？ いつぐらいから考えていた？
――What is the main reason you decided to graduate? How long have you been thinking about it?
坂崎「決めたのは漠然と「いつかはやめないといけない」と思っていて。学生時代も高校3年間とか期間が決まっているという認識が私の中であって、東京女子は特別だからこそ、ずっとはいれないなと。でもやっぱりみんなと離れがたいし、自分で決断するのがすごくつらくて。で、あっと言う間に10年経って、でも10年過ぎちゃったら決断できないな、離れられないなと思ったから10年というので卒業させていただこうかなと思いました」
Sakazaki: "I’d had the vague thought that ‘someday, I’ll have to quit’. I understood my time in TJPW as being something with a fixed period, similar to how in school, you’re only in high school for three years, and because TJPW is so special, I couldn’t stay forever. But of course it’s difficult to say goodbye to everyone, and to muster the resolve on my own. Then, in the blink of an eye, ten years had passed. I thought if more than ten years pass, I’ll never be able to decide. I’ll never be able to leave. It’s the tenth year, so I thought ‘I guess I should get them to let me graduate.’”
Knowing the nuance of がたい makes it even sadder 
逆に
MY FORMER ENEMY.
The amount of time it took for me to wrap my brain around this one… 
. If you scroll back far enough in the pro wrestling thread, you can see me repeatedly get it wrong, haha. Thankfully, I think I might have it down now? Still often a huge pain to translate, though…
The notes say that the basic meaning of 逆に is “conversely”, but it is often used when something takes place contrary to one’s expectation or intention (this is usually how I see it used).
When 逆に is preceded by a clause, the clause often involves たら, と, or のに.
According to the related expressions section, when 逆に expresses the idea of “contrary to one’s expectation/intention,” it can be paraphrased as かえって. But if it simply means “conversely” without that sense, かえって can’t be used.
Here's an example from the last TJPW translation I finished, which had a pretty entertaining moment backstage after Daydream (tag team of Rika Tatsumi and Miu Watanabe) lost in the tag tournament final on 2024.02.10.
Hard mode: here’s the video (the video is really good for this one).
辰巳「あああああー。もうダメだ。よくない、よくない、これは。悪い夢だ。悪夢だ。未詩ごめーん」
Tatsumi: “Ahhh. It’s no good. Not good, not good, this is not good. It’s a bad dream. A nightmare. Sorry, Miu.”
未詩「悔しい。白昼夢でベルト取ったのも優勝したのもけっこう前だったから、ここまで来たからには私も（両国）2試合する覚悟はできてたし、リカさんだって2試合も3試合もするって言ってたし。でも、でじもんもいっぱい2人で歩んできただけの闘いがあって。まさかでじもんとここまで厳しい闘いになるとは思わなかったけど、でもやっぱ強かった…。でも大丈夫です。これからも白昼夢はいっぱい夢見続けるし、夢をまだまだ叶え続けたい」
Miu: “It’s disappointing. Daydream winning the belts and winning the tournament both happened quite a while ago, so I was prepared to do two matches (at Ryogoku) as long as we made it that far, and Rika-san said she’d do two or three matches, too. But it’s thanks to the long road that Daisy Monkey has walked to get here that we could have such a battle. I never expected it would be such a tough fight against Daisy Monkey, but they were really strong… It’s alright, though. Daydream will keep dreaming from here, and I want to keep making dreams come true.”
辰巳「いや、もう未来が見えない…。真っ暗です」
Tatsumi: “No, I can’t see a future anymore… It’s pitch black.”
未詩「大丈夫、大丈夫」
Miu: “It’s alright, it’ll be fine.”
辰巳「ベルトの夢も遠のいちゃったし。未詩はベルト挑戦するよね？」
Tatsumi: “My dream of having the belt is also far away. You’re challenging for it, right?”
未詩「そうですね。3月31日に国技館で」
Miu: “Yes, On March 31 at Ryogoku Kokugikan.”
辰巳「私に譲ってくれない？ その権利」
Tatsumi: “Will you hand it over to me? The right to challenge?”
未詩「なんで？」
Miu: “What?”
辰巳「私に譲ってよ」
Tatsumi: “Give it to me.”
未詩「や…だ。ダメ」
Miu: “Absolutely not. No way.”
辰巳「そしたらもう、うまくいく。すべてうまくいくから、私に譲って。お願い。お・ね・が・い！（未詩に抱き着いて懇願）」
Tatsumi: “If you do, it’ll all be fine. Everything will work out, so give it to me. Please. PLEASE!” (pleading as she grasps Miu’s hand tightly)
未詩「こわい…。だって私（バトルロイヤル）勝ったし」
Miu: “Scary… But I won (the battle royal).”
辰巳「いいじゃん、譲ってよ」
Tatsumi: “It’s fine, give it to me.”
未詩「やだ！」
Miu: “No!”
辰巳「（発狂して）うるせえ！ 譲る気になった？」
Tatsumi: (strangling Miu) “Shut up! Are you ready to give it to me?”
未詩「なんないー。恐い恐い！」
Miu: “I’m not! I’m scared, I’m scared!”
辰巳「もういい！（と先に控室へ）」
Tatsumi: “That’s enough!” (she leaves to go backstage)
未詩「なんで…なんで誰も止めないんですか？ でも、リカさんが悔しがってくれてるのは白昼夢としてはまだまだこっからあるし。逆にあれですね、いつも通りのリカさんですね（笑）。ここから白昼夢だって叶えたい夢叶えるし、私は私で両国国技館でプリプリに挑むし。ここからますます白昼夢も私も頑張りたいと思います」
Miu: “Why… why doesn’t anyone stop her? But Rika-san is just frustrated; we’ll still be teaming up as Daydream from here. Actually, acting like that, that’s Rika-san’s normal state.” (laughs) “From here, I’m going to fulfill the dreams I want to fill as Daydream, too, and I’ll be challenging on my own for the Princess of Princess championship at Ryogoku Kokugikan. I’m going to do my best both as Daydream and as myself."
It’s a fun one!
A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar
