Short Japanese Culture Questions

I’ve picked up a few of these in everyday correspondence since finally learning to read the language (thank you WK!).

It still amazes me that a country with a pictographic written language capable of amazingly nuanced thought in precious little physical space developed 絵文字(えもじ).

I also tend to write “<laugh>” rather than use actual emoji in English, though. I wonder if it’s just a desire to use real language to ensure understanding. I’m never quite confident with emoji — too many choices and I’m not sure everyone interprets them all the same way.

Anyway, I’m now curious about club 444, too. I’ll ask my daughters (they were big into Animal Crossing a year or two ago).

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I don’t actually know anything, per se, but according to the Animal Crossing wiki, 444 is goroawase’d as シショー here, which is a pun on the owner’s name… ししょー. Which is 師匠 in hiragana.

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Extra likes for turning this into an English verb! :laughing:


I was still struggling to understand how 444 became ししょう・ししょー but eventually realized it’s し・し・よ.

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I figured it was a pun on ししし, like くくく, a way of laughing.

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I can’t find any Japanese dub videos of it, but Hetalia’s Prussia laughs the same way and his laugh is usually written kesesesesese if I recall correctly

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I find it mildly bemusing that anyone might think I had any idea what “Hetalia’s Prussia” meant. Google eventually clued me in.

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I was so distracted by the lack of laugh videos in Japanese

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Are there any common terms of endearment between husbands and wives in Japanese? Or parents and children?

I’ve got a friend who teaches ESL, and likes to put up infographics about quirky little turns of phrase in various different languages. Today’s is terms of endearment. So far, the internet has supplied her with 卵型の顔, and told her it means “egg with eyes”. So far as I understand, Japanese doesn’t really do terms of endearment in the same way as other languages, but I thought I’d check in with the brains trust. Perhaps someone who’s married to a Japanese person (coughcough @Leebo cough) could suggest something.

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Well, that definitely isn’t right :slight_smile:

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To be honest, my husband and I call each other by name. Since our daughter was born, we call each other ママ and パパ so she understands what to call her parents.

Even when kids grow up and move out, many married couples tend to keep the ママ and パパ title. I used to think it was weird until I realized how quickly you get used to it. After saying it for several years, it probably just sticks.

We still try to use names when we’re talking in private. But for all intents and purposes, I’m literally お母さん with my daughter or 先生 at school so that’s just one way Japanese people lose their individuality I guess.

As for other terms of endearment, あなた is very commonly used to address your husband directly especially in older generations. But not in the same way you use it as just a personal pronoun. It’s more sing-song like あ~な~た~.

Also, my elderly neighbor calls her husband ダーリン, but she studies English, so it’s hard to say if that’s a common thing. It’s more likely among young people. Same with ハニー.

From the man’s perspective, all I’ve ever noticed is the man calling his wife by his first name with ちゃん attached. If they’re really close, he won’t use a title at all.

The most popular way to communicate closeness is the nickname route really. Both parties often shorten their partner’s name and add a suffix for both as well. For example, Sacchan for Sachiko or Takkun for Takeru. When I think about it, my husband and I call each other by nicknames than our full legal names, but we don’t use titles. We’re also not the norm because we run a guesthouse and our guests call us those names as they are simpler.

As for children, again, the nickname route with a cutesy title like ちゃん、くん、たん is common. We call our daughter Tan-chan which is completely different name than her real name, but it’s our inside joke so we use it occasionally at home. Her teachers will often shorten her name and add ちゃん. We also use おいら when we’re narrating her actions from her perspective.

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Loved reading this. :blush:

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My wife and I don’t call each other pet names directly, but we do say パパ and ママ to refer to ourselves when talking to our cat (pictured on the left).

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Random curiosity. Some years ago, I went to a local museum exhibit that portrayed the culinary evolution of Sweden, in photographs, recipes and facts about when certain ingredients made their appearance on the national marked and so, change local cooking forever. :grin:

Is there anything similar for Japan that anyone on here know about? A documentary? Book? News article/ culinary column? Anything is welcome! ^>^

Basically:

Is there a good historical description of the culinary developments of everyday food in Japan?

Like what what you serve your kids going to school? At breakfast? Popular dishes really. Not cool hip stuff pro chefs pull off. But ordinary people living in Japan, their most common dishes. ^>^

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I can’t think of anything exactly the same, but some natural history museums like to include ancient foods/recipes. I know 上野原遺跡 has Jomon recipes. If you ping me outside of work, I might be able to find photos I took. I should be able to figure out which day I visited.

The Japanology on vending machines is pretty cool too. It has an evolution of them over time.

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It’s not about history, but for current recipes for such dishes, I really like https://www.japanesecooking101.com/

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This is really cool! Japan is certainly in its own league when it comes to vending machine culture! :grin:

I love this site as well! :yum:

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I need help in regards to blowing your nose. Its that time of the year where my nose is not so stuffy I need spray, but not clear enough where I can breathe comfortably. I know for the most part you gotta sniff, but when the time comes and I have access to tissue is it cool to just blow my nose where ever whenever? The last 3 years I worked with people from the US so it was never really an issue. But this year I work with all Japanese people and started to care.

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re Lunar Year:

the only time most people get reminded about it
is when they watch news reports about its celebrations in China

I’ve noticed if people blow their noses in the staff room, they stand by the trash can and face away from others as they blow their nose, then go wash their hands after they’re done. I’ve also taken to, (if I need to blow my nose repeatedly) going to the bathroom and blowing my nose furiously there.

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