Vocabulary
Shikanoko Nokonoko Koshitantan
- 路頭に迷う・to be out in the cold
A Certain Scientific Railgun
- 拘束・restraint
- 拘束衣・straitjacket
- 甲高い・shrill, high-pitched
Love Quest
- 何卒・1) please, if it pleases you (teineigo) 2) by all means
- ややこしい・complicated, complex, troublesome
- 微風・gentle breeze, zephyr
- 占領・1) occupying (militarily); 2) occupying, taking up, having an area all to oneself
- ごもっとも・you are quite right (teineigo)
- 痛くも痒くもない・it’s no skin off my nose, I could(n’t) care less
- 腕ずく・(by) force, brute force
- タカビー・domineering person, high-horse
- 粗品・1) small gift; 2) freebie, marketing incentive
- ポケベル・pager
- はち切れる・to be filled to bursting, to burst
- 恐縮・feeling much obliged
- 恐縮ですが…・I’m terribly sorry, but …
- ポカン・vacantly, flabbergastedly, with one’s mouth wide open (onomatopoeia)
- 毳々しい・gaudy, showy
(commonly spelled using kana) - 温もり・warmth
(commonly spelled using kana) - 古き良き・good old, good old-fashioned
- 庇う・1) to defend, to stick up for; 2) to care for (i.e. an injured leg)
- 貢ぎ物・tribute
Other
- 問わず・regardless of
- 自炊・cooking for oneself
- そっけない・blunt, curt, cold
- 暗澹・depressing
- 下見・preliminary inspection, having a look in advance
- コント・skit, comedy sketch
- 命中・direct hit, hitting the mark
- 階級・1) social class; 2) grade, rank
- 神戸っぽい・“Kobe-esque”; lady-like, refined, elegant (Kansai-ben)
- たわし・scrubbing brush
- ノリツッコミ・going along with a joke at first and then pointing it out for grammatical effect
- 時化・1) stormy seas; 2) poor catch (of fish)
- 寝癖・1) bed head; 2) habit of moving around or talking in one’s sleep
- 弾圧・oppression, suppression
Me talk
My next Japan trip is now just over two weeks away, and I’m torn between wanting time to fly by until then and wishing that I had more time to brush up on my Japanese. Unfortunately, work is keeping me fairly busy and tired, but I’m trying to spend a lot of time on listening exercises, as well as watching videos without subtitles.
Shikanoko Nokonoko Koshitantan
Not much to say about the show this time, except that I was very confused by the phrase YOSOUGAIJINBUTSU, because I parsed it as 予想 + 外人物, rather than 予想外 + 人物.
(“Shouldn’t that say ‘expected visitors’?”)
Love Quest
I recently attended a French class, which was great; I’ve been slouching on my French ever since I started learning Japanese.
Content warning: Insensitive slang term regarding international romantic relationships
Recently, I reached a part of the game where instead of being attacked by women, I’ve been getting attacked by taxi cabs, referred to as イエローキャブ. Oddly enough, my flirtation-themed attacks still worked on them …
After successfully getting some of these taxi cabs to fall in love with me, it was revealed that they were actually people (mostly women) who had “done ♥♥♥” with gaijin.
I found this absurd plot line quite hilarious. After looking into it, it appears that this is actually a cultural reference that I had been oblivious of, but which would probably have been obvious to Japanese people playing the game in 1995.
It turns out that イエローキャブ is “a disparaging term for Japanese women who travel overseas or to foreign enclaves in Japan seeking to meet foreign men”.
This make this portion of the game all the more relevant for those interested in Japanese language and culture, but it does make it more problematic, which is why I’ve decided to put it behind a content warning. However, for those undeterred, the history behind this term is honestly quite fascinating.
Oh, an in case you’re wondering: I was able to break the curse.
Other
問わず
This seems like rather a useful word. Literally, it translates to something like “without inquiring/caring about”.
It can be used in phrases such as:
- 男女問わず・regardless of gender
- 年齢問わず・regardless of age
- 国籍を問わず・regardless of nationality
- 人種を問わず・regardless of race/ethnicity
It seems that 不問 has a similar meaning, but is perhaps used a bit differently. (I’m not quite sure, hence it not being on my list of words I’ve learned.)
Kobe-like, scrubbing brush and noritsukkomi
I learned these words from the video above. Do yourself a favor and watch it … or at least the kids part, starting just after the 6 minute mark; it’s adorable.
弾圧 = Oppression
Pressuring somebody with bullets is kind of oppressive, yeah.