Oddly Pronounced English Words in Japanese

As a native English speaker, it's nice that there are so many English loan words in use in Japanese, though in practice a lot of these words aren't always rendered with 100% phonetic accuracy due to limitations of the katakana sound system. The Japanese often use English words for happy, positive concepts, and one word they like is "healthy"...however since it's pronounced ヘルシー herushii, it took quite a while for my brain to get used to it. The other day I was watching a news report that mentioned a government "think tank," but for phonetic reasons this word came out as "sink tank," made my brain want to rebel. The most elementary English word of them all, the definite article "the," is yet another example of pronunciation that must be re-learned, since it comes out as ザ za when the Japanese use it. Some other English words that come out oddly when rendered in Japanese include tune, steam, etiquette and artist, which are pronounced chune, su-cheemu, echi-ketto and ah-chist. There's also the English phrase "thank you," which for reasons of pronunciation always comes out as san kyu in Japanese. Since this sounds like the numbers 3 and 9, it's common for March 9th to be designated a day of "thanks" by some companies, including the creators of Hatsune Miku.

And don't even get me started on "Tirol" chocolates, pronounced chi-ROH-ru.

Gaijin are "KY" (Cannot Read the Air)

One theme I write about often is the Japanese idea of 常識 joshiki, translatable as the knowledge that every (Japanese) person possesses by default, a sort of "universal common sense." Joshiki is all around you in Japan, the list of knowledge and behaviors and attitudes that nearly everyone seems to share...except us poor gaijin, who are doomed to always be on a slightly different wavelength from everyone around us. I'm from San Diego where it's usually warm, so I'm more than happy to wear short sleeves on a warm day in March, though this often surprises Japanese, who are trained by their school system to only wear summer clothes from June 1 through October 1. Another bit of "common sense" in Japan is that the only time outdoor swimming is permitted is July and August, and Japanese people I knew were shocked when I went to the beach on September 1st. The combination of not being aware of these subtle cultural facts and our normal tendency to mis-understand some Japanese words means that foreigners are often viewed as "KY," slang for 空気読めない kuuki yomenai, which means "cannot read the air" (i.e. are usually unaware of subtle social situations). In the end I don't worry about trying to follow the Japanese way too closely, preferring to be マイペース ("my pace"), a phrase used to describe someone who lives life at his own pace and in his own way.

Foreigners are often on a different wavelength from Japanese.

Paper Doors and Japan

When I came to Japan my head was filled with silly stereotypes of delicate wooden houses with paper walls. The reality, of course, was...pretty accurate, at least in the case of my house, a 40+ year old wooden structure with a liquor shop built into the first floor and a second floor that was added when I moved in. Nearly all houses in Japan today combine both Western and Japanese features, for example having a 洋間 yoh-ma or "Western-style room" with a sofa and chairs right next to a 和室 washitsu or "Japanese room," with tatami mats, recessed alcoves for displaying art and other traditional features. One of the hallmarks of Japanese architecture are shoji doors, lightweight wooden frames with paper covering them which let light in yet retain heat when closed. As with many other aspects of Japanese life, shoji paper doors have a very long history, dating at least from the Heian Period (794-1185). While foreigners may love the look of these traditional Japanese rooms, they're not universally popular among Japanese people. Being made of paper, they don't provide much in the way of meaningful privacy, and children and cats love to poke holes in them. I've heard shoji paper doors are a contributing factor in Japan's "sexless" marriage problem, since who would want to do the horizontal tango with the kids or (ulp) in-laws just a paper door away?

Paper doors are a symbol of Japan.

Light Novels on iTunes!

For years, J-List customers have been buying our iTunes Japan prepaid cards which make it easy to create a Japan-based iTunes account so you can download anime, JPOP and KPOP songs, Japan-only iOS apps (many of which are released free, though you need an iTunes Japan account to access them), and so on. Now there's another great reason to get into iTunes Japan content: books! Apple's iBooks app for iPhone/iPod touch and iPad is now compatible with Japanese content, and there's a great selection of awesome manga (digitally created for highest quality) as well as light novels for you to browse. All content is compatible with any iOS device you own. 

The Japanese Love Gift Giving

There are certain things that are very important to the Japanese, including obsessing over cleanliness, making sure things as kawaii as they can be and...gift-giving. The Japanese are master gift givers, and have many customs related to giving and receiving, which provides a valuable "social lubrication" that makes all manner of personal and business relationships work more smoothly here. The most common form of gift is the omiyage (oh-mee-yah-geh), or souvenir from a specific place, and whenever J-List goes to discuss licensing eroge and visual novels with new game companies, we visit their office with a box of local treats from our home prefecture of Gunma for the staff to share. Incidentally, if you ever come to Japan, it's a good idea to bring some items to give out as gifts to people you might encounter here, as it will really make things go more smoothly. Just about anything in a box that's representative of where you're from is fine -- even cigarettes are okay, if you know that the person you'll be encountering smokes. (Supposedly Newport Menthols are a good brand.) Another good idea is Starbucks mugs from your city, since everyone loves coffee in Japan. Incidentally, J-List stocks some great Japanese snacks in gift boxes which are fun to give to others.

An Omiyage shop in Okinawa.

Managing "China Risk"

One keyword that's big in Japan these days is チャイナリスク ("China Risk"), which describes the many potential problems that countries and companies face when dealing with China in the 21st century. Seen from Japan, the list is very long indeed, including environmental problems, rapidly rising labor costs, manufacturing quality issues (there've been several food-related scares here), legal issues like international companies losing the rights to their own names because of local trademark squatters, and the huge problem with counterfeits (Asia is awash with fake Yamaha and Honda motorcycles, for example). The biggest problem Japan has faced so far was last year, when the government purchased the disputed Senkaku Islands (known as the Daiyou Islands in China) from their private Japanese owners, ostensibly to keep nationalists from both sides from landing on the islands and inflaming the situation. The plan backfired and Chinese rioted, in orderly government-sponsored demonstrations (in Beijing) and open violence elsewhere. (They also destroyed a "Japanese" Samsung factory, since Korean companies pretend to be Japanese to improve the worldwide image of their products.) An interesting drama called Made In Japan recently captured the frustration Japanese feel over China, telling the story of a struggling Japanese electronics manufacturer who halts a dedicated engineer's lithium-ion battery manufacturing project, only to see him move to China and complete the project with a Chinese manufacturer.

Balancing "China Risk" is a challenge.

Do You Have a "Childhood Friend"?

When manga and anime creators go to design a new character, they have many core persona types to start from. They might choose to create a basic pure imouto younger-sister character but tweak her personality with yandere tendencies while making her speak the Osaka-ben regional dialect randomly, or present a new take on the classic fiery-haired genki magical girl by making her a "mayoler" (a person who loves mayonnaise) just for laughs. One type of character that's quite common in anime is the osana-najimi or "childhood friend," who grew up alongside a main character and knows everything about them. I spent my own childhood moving from place to place every couple of years, so the idea of having a lifelong friend is unknown to me, though my wife grew up in the neighborhood we live in now and has several. But an osana-najimi isn't exactly a friend, it's both more and less. "It's like they're always there, and you never think about them. Since you were together from the beginning, you can't remember a time when that person wasn't around." In the (surprisingly good) new anime Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru (My Girlfriend and Childhood Friend Fight Too Much, shortened to OreShura by fans), the main character Eita is fawned over by his childhood friend Chiwa as well as the beautiful Masuzu, who becomes his girlfriend as "camouflage" to get the other boys to stop trying to date her. In one scene, Masuzu says, "You sure know everything that Chiwa is thinking, don't you?" and he replies, "Yes, well, I'm her childhood friend after all."

"Childhood friend" characters are a staple in anime.

Fun Japanese Fashion + Cosplay Items On Sale

This month J-List is having a big sale on all Japanese apparel and cosplay products, including everything from amazing Japanese socks and "socks glue" to pantsu, anime T-shirts and those wacky Horse Head masks. You've never had a better excuse to browse our Japanese Apparel and Cosplay product page than now!

Raising "Haafu" Kids Bilingually

Over the past 17 years I've helped raise two great kids who are haafu, half Japanese and half American -- well, a quarter American and a quarter British, but whatever. Since my Japanese wife and I both knew how hard it is to learn a language, we wanted to make sure our kids were raised bilingual, so we came up with some strategies to help make this possible. If the kids ever wanted something from me, they had to ask me in English, and I only purchased DVDs from the U.S. so they were forced to watch everything in English only -- I even imported dubbed anime from the U.S. and watched it in English with them, pretending there was no Japanese track on the disc. I worked hard to make sure they were exposed to American cultural icons, ike Thanksgiving and Halloween and Scooby Doo, so they had a proper link to the U.S. In the end, of course, there's no "free" way to learn a language, and both my kids had to buckle down and learn English vocabulary and grammar, which they've done very well at.

Like some of our favorite anime characters, my kids are haafu.

Understanding Japan's Military Through Anime

You probably don't think of Japan as a military power, but the country does possess a large military force with an annual budget of $46 billion dollars. The Japanese military is called the 自衛隊 jiei-tai ("Self-Defense Forces" or SDF) and was created in 1954 as a strictly defensive force after the end of the Allied Occupation of Japan. Being an all-volunteer defensive military, the SDF lacks certain features such as aircraft carriers, air-to-surface missiles, bombers and marines, and all Japanese fighter jets are modified with short-range fuel tanks to ally any fears Japan's neighbors might have of ever being attacked. One of the biggest problems with Japan's military forces is that they're basically extra-legal -- Article 9 of Japan's constitution strictly states that "land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential will never be maintained" despite the daily reality of Japan's armed forces. In the 21 years that I've lived here, there have been numerous attempts at amending the constitution to give the SDF some official legal status, but Japan's strange form of democracy, in which every little political party has the right to shout out their opinion and consensus is very hard to reach, has made this impossible so far. One popular type of obsession in Japan is "military otaku," and there are Japanese who love everything about Japan's armed forces. There's a whole sub-grouping of anime series specifically designed to appeal to these military fans, from Girls und Panzer to Muv-Luv Alternate: Total Eclipse.

Muv-Luv is an anime that appeals to Self Defense Forces otakus.

Happy Shrine Maiden Day!

When foreigners come to Japan they're immediately enthralled with the beautiful temples and shrines they encounter here. Japan has two main cultural/religious traditions which coexist side-by-side and which fill different roles for people as they go through their lives. The first is Shinto, which finds kami (spirits or gods) in things like trees or mountains and which is tied to happy life events like weddings, celebrating newborn babies or the arrival of a new year. The other tradition is Buddhism, which was imported through China and Korea and which today is mostly related to funerals and honoring family members who have gone on. While you probably can't remember the last time you saw an anime that was steeped in solemn Buddhist themes (Buddhist statue gags in Nichijou notwithstanding), you can probably think of several that feature Shinto shrines and characters wearing the trademark garb of miko Shrine Maidens. This is because Shinto seems inherently more "happy" and is more likely to find its way into popular culture and thus is more visible to us, while Buddhism is far more difficult for us to access. Incidentally, May 5th happens to be Miko-no-Hi or "Shrine Maiden Day," because "3-5" sounds like mi-ku to the Japanese. If you happen to see a Shrine Maiden, give her a hug.

March 5 is Shrine Maiden day.

J-List's Fashion and Cosplay Sale is Going On Now

Announcing the J-List Spring Fashion + Cosplay sale! Since we have so many fun Japanese fashion products + accessories plus cosplay products and anime t-shirts, we decided to have a sale on these items for you this month. Through the end of March, get 2x J-List points on all these excellent products! Click to see the most popular Japanese apparel and cosplay products, as ranked by our customers!