The Best Japanese Words Ever – Part 6

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The Best Japanese Words Ever – Part 6

It’s time for 6-8 more illustrious Japanese terms. After a couple straightforward ones, it’s a hodgepodge of headscratchers and homonyms, with a couple venereal disease terms mixed in to make this a very special STD edition!

1) 歯垢 (shikoh) = teeth dirt = plaque.

Nice and simple, telling it like it is. That’s exactly why I love you, Japanese. When coming across the word “plaque” in English for the first time, there’s no normal human

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The Best Japanese Words Ever – Part 5

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The Best Japanese Words Ever – Part 5

Here are 6-8 more wonderful Japanese terms. For this post, I’m focusing on homonyms. All these words sound exactly the same, or at least exactly the same to my gaijin ears, but with very different meanings. Sometimes head-scratching. Sometimes balls-scratching. Enjoy!

1) うみ (umi) means both “sea” (海) and “pus” (膿).

It’s of course not uncommon for a Japanese person to say, “I love the sea.” But is that

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The Best Japanese Words Ever - Part 4

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The Best Japanese Words Ever - Part 4

Here are six to eight more of my favorite Japanese terms and phrases.

1)      鬼の居ぬ間に洗濯 (oni no inu ma ni sentaku) – This is the Japanese version of “When the cat's away, the mice will play.” But it translates more directly to, “When the monster’s away, do laundry.”

2)      栗鼠 (risu) = acorn rat = squirrel

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The Best Japanese Words Ever - Part 1

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The Best Japanese Words Ever - Part 1

One of the things that I love most about Japanese is that just by looking at the Chinese-based kanji characters, you very often not only instantly know the meaning of a word, but you also get a good sense of the etymology. Below are some of my favorite words that spell it all out for you.

1)      不感症 (fukanshou) = no feeling disease = sexual frigidity

2)      千擦り (senzuri) = thousand rubs = masturbation

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