Japanese has room for a lot of nuance. Moreso in writing than in speech, but even in speech there are a lot of possible synonyms to be used, for example these words may all be translated as "to eat’:
食べる
食う
食事する
いただく
召し上がる
食らう
Maybe also have a look at The Nuance Thread 
? Not comprehensive yet, but it might give you an idea.
Also they can do a lot with grammar, where a simple word can give a whole different meaning to a sentence, just because it’s between some other words.