二股
ふたまた [futamata] – Literally: “Double groin”. If you knew the parts of the word, you might be able to guess that it means “having relations with more than one lover.”
乍ら族
ながらぞく [nagarazoku] – Refers to people who habitually listen to radio or watch television as they study/work. This word came to be in 1959 when…
走馬灯
そうまとう [soumatou] – A kind of 2-layered lantern. The inner layer revolves and has images cut into it, such that when it turns, the shapes appear to move around the lantern.
指南
指南 [shinan] – Literally “pointing south”, this word means teaching or instruction. Why south? This word has its origins in ancient Chinese south pointing chariots…
眼福
がんぷく [ganpuku] – Combining the character for eye (眼) with fortune (福), ganpuku means ‘the joy of beholding a beautiful/rare sight’.
七光
ななひかり [nanahikari] – Literally: “seven lights”, this word refers to a person whose success or fame is owed largely to their powerful/influential parents (or spouse).
ため口
ためぐち [tameguchi] – Refers to speaking to someone else as an equal (without using humble/honorific or formal language).
Kangoku izakaya: a dinner in prison
Have you been a bad boy or bad girl lately? Well, maybe you should turn yourself in for your heinous crimes at a kangoku izakaya.
Kangoku (監獄) means prison, and izakaya (居酒屋) is a Japanese style drinking restaurant. So a kangoku izakaya is a Japanese restaurant/bar that has been styled to look like a prison! And if the thought of vicious felons and dirty prison cells doesn’t whet your appetite, I don’t know what will.
東雲
しののめ [shinonome] – Composed of the kanji for ‘east’ and ‘cloud’, shinonome means “early dawn” (the time when the eastern sky starts to become visible).
Nihonshock’s new vocab section
Following on yesterday’s graphical tweak of the site, I’ve added a new feature: Vocabulary.
These are basically short posts (just a paragraph or so) about a specific Japanese word that I thought was either interesting or worth talking about. The words included will (for the most part) be…
More from Nihonshock…
