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【No. 1342】Urayamashī (うらやましい - Envious)

Aug 21, 2018 21:39
Urayamashī

When you think that someone is favored/rich and you want to become such a person, you can say urayamashī (うらやましい) to express the feeling.

Urayamashī is an adjective form of the verb urayamu (うらやむ).

Ura (うら) means inside/behind something, especially here it means "one's heart."

In addition, yamu (やむ) means to be taken sick.

Originally, this term literally meant that one's mind becomes a disease by seeing someone's privileged status.

However, these days it is mainly used to express a sense of longing that you want to become such a gifted or lucky person.
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【No. 1341】Keshikaran (けしからん - Unreasonable)

Aug 20, 2018 14:21
Keshikaran

When something is unreasonable and undesirable, you can express anger feelings by using the following phrase:

"Keshikaran" (けしからん).

Keshikaru/keshikara can be written as 異しかる or 怪しかる in kanji, and it means that something is abnormal.

Additionally, -n (ん) is a change in the sound of the negative auxiliary verb -zu/nu (ず/ぬ).

You might think that the denial of abnormal is normal.

However, the denial of abnormal here expresses that it is not just abnormal, it is terribly abnormal.

Meanwhile, these days on the Internet, this phrase is often used to mean "it is too sexy/cute."
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【No. 1340】Ochame (お茶目 - Mischievous)

Aug 19, 2018 20:08
Ochame

There are some people around me who are called ochame (お茶目).

Ochame means that someone is mischievous or innocent and lovable.

O (お) is a polite prefix, but there are several theories about the etymology of chame (茶目).

One theory says that chame was made by combining cha (茶) and me (め).

Cha usually means "tea," but it can also mean "antic" or "cursory."

Also, me usually means "eye," but it can also mean "to comport oneself as something."

Another theory said that chame comes from chameri (ちゃめり), which means "antic" or "playful."
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【No. 1339】Mountain Climbing Alone

Aug 18, 2018 15:31
Mountain Climbing Alone

Today I woke up early and tried to climb Mountain Hinode alone.

Since it takes about only three hours to climb up and down the mountain, it might be closer to hiking than climbing.

However, it was really tough for me to reach the top of the mountain, because these days I have not taken exercise.

When I reached the mountain's peak, I felt awful, so I needed to rest on a bench for about 30 minutes.

After recovering from the bad feeling, I realized that there were beautiful mountains with a nice view.

This is the best part of climbing.
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【No. 1338】A Family Trip during Bon Day 2

Aug 17, 2018 22:59
A Family Trip during Bon Day 2

On the second day of the Nagano trip, we first went to the Chihiro Art Museum Azumino.

Chihiro IWASAKI is a famous artist painter and picture book writer in Japan, and she has affected a lot of Japanese people including my family.

In this art museum, in addition to her works, there were many picture books by various artists around the world.

After visiting there, we went to an innkeeping town called Naraijuku, which is located at an altitude of about 900 meters.

Since traditional Japanese houses and streets were kept, it was beautiful.
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【No. 1337】A Family Trip during Bon Day 1

Aug 16, 2018 23:42
A Family Trip during Bon Day 1

I went to Azumino city, Nagano, with my family and relatives during the last two days of Bon holidays (that is, from August 14th to 15th).

First, we visited Daiō Wasabi Farm (大王わさび農場 - literally "King wasabi farm"), then saw the wasabi farm and ate dishes that use wasabi.

Transparent water on the farm was very beautiful, and the wasabi dishes were delicious.

After that, we checked in at a hotel, got into a hot spring, and went to a fireworks display.

We really enjoyed a grand display of 12,000 fireworks in the night sky.
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【No. 1336】Fūrin (風鈴 - Wind Bell)

Aug 15, 2018 17:58
Fūrin

Three years ago, I wrote an article about fūrin (風鈴 - wind bell).

Today I would like to talk about fūrin in more detail.

Fū (風) means "wind" and rin (鈴) means "bell."

Therefore, fūrin is a bell that sounds by taking the wind as the characters indicate.

In the past, fūrin was used as a tool of fortune telling in China.

This was imported to Japan as an amulet tool when the time Buddhism was introduced.

Then, over a long period of time, it has changed to an item that represents summer.
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【No. 1335】Yukata (浴衣)

Aug 14, 2018 05:19
Yukata

In this season, I sometimes see people who are wearing yukata (浴衣).

Yukata is a kind of Japanese summer clothes, which is an unlined kimono (着物 - traditional Japanese clothes).

This term comes from yukatabira (湯帷子), which was used during the Heian period.

Yu (湯) means "bath" and katabira (帷子) means an unlined kimono for summer.

Therefore, yukatabira means a cloth to hide one's skin while taking a bath.

Originally, only those of high-rank used yukatabira, but after cotton spread in the Edo period, it came to be called yukata for short and became common as casual wear for summer.
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【No. 1334】Gobusata (ご無沙汰)

Aug 13, 2018 11:52
Gobusata

The most common Japanese greeting when you meet with someone for the first time in a long time is hisashiburi (久しぶり) or ohisashiburi desu (お久しぶりです).

In addition, there is the more formal expression, gobusata shiteorimasu (ご無沙汰しております).

Go (ご) is a polite prefix, bu (無) means "nothing," and sata (沙汰) means "contact" or "news."

That is to say, gobusata means "These days we have not made contact."

However, if you use just gobusata as a noun, it could become a slang term which implies that you have not done sexual activity for a while.
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【No. 1333】Ikagawashii (いかがわしい)

Aug 12, 2018 21:08
Today I saw ikagawashii yume (いかがわしい夢).

Ikagawashii (いかがわしい) is an adjective that means "dubious" or "doubtful," and yume (夢) means "dream."

Ika (いか) was a word expressing a feeling of doubt, and it became a basis of ikaga (いかが), which is an adverb that is used to asking for opinions.

Furthermore, ikaga changed to the adjective ikagashi (いかがし), and it finally changed to ikagawashii.

However, note that these days ikagawashii often means "obscene" or "unethical."

For example, if you say ikagawashii yume, it will probably mean "wet dream" or "lewd dream."
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【No. 1332】Traffic Jams at Midnight

Aug 11, 2018 23:02
Traffic Jams at Midnight

Today is the Japanese national holiday called Yama no Hi (山の日 - literally "Mountain Day").

In most Japanese companies, the long summer holidays called obon yasumi (お盆休み - literally "Bon Holidays") began today.

I also returned my parents' home in Aichi from Tokyo.

In order to avoid traffic jams accompanying the holidays, I departed by car around 1:30 am, but I underestimated this holiday.

Despite midnight, I got traffic jams on the expressway.

I tried to take rest on a rest area, but there was no space to stop.

Surprisingly, the length of the traffic jams grew to around 30 kilometers at aroud noon.
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【No. 1331】Gomenkudasai (ごめんください - Anyone Around?)

Aug 10, 2018 02:34
Gomenkudasai

When visiting someone's house, Japanese people often say gomenkudasai (ごめんください) at the entrance.

Go (ご) is a polite prefix, men (めん) mean "pardon" or "forgive," and kudasai (ください) means "please."

That is to say, gomenkudasai implies your feelings of apologies for suddenly visiting someone's house.

Originally, this phrase literalle meant apologies, but these days it is mainly used as a greeting when visiting someone's house.

If you say gomen-nasai (ごめんなさい), by replacing kudasai (ください) with nasai (なさい), it just means "I'm sorry."
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【No. 1330】Kokoro ni Shimiru (心にしみる - Being Impressed)

Aug 9, 2018 15:22
Kokoro ni Shimiru

When expressing that you are impressed by something in English, you probably say in the way that something acts on someone, such as "to be impressed by" or "to be moved by."

On the other hand, Japanese people usually express it in the way that the someone just acts, such as kandō shita (感動した - literally "I did kandō").

However, there is another Japanese expression, which uses the way of saying that something acts on someone.

It is kokoro ni shimiru (心にしみる).

Kokoro (心) means "heart" and shimiru (しみる) means "to soak into."

Therefore, this expression means that someone is impressed as if something soaks into the one's heart.
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【No. 1329】Kono Ue Naku (この上なく - Supremely)

Aug 8, 2018 14:56
Kono Ue Naku

Today I would like to introduce you to the Japanese expression kono ue naku (この上なく), which means "most" or "supremely."

Kono (この) means "this," ue (上) means "up" or "top," and naku means "nothing," so the literal meaning of kono ue naku is "There is nothing that is higher than this."

As you can guess, this expression implies that the thing is the best.

You can make a more calm and elegant impression by using this than using direct expressions such as saikō (最高 - best/greatest).

【Example sentence】
Kono ue naku shiawase da (この上なく幸せだ - I'm as happy as can be).
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【No. 1328】Hadazamui (肌寒い - Chilly)

Aug 7, 2018 13:39
Hadazamui

It is raining today, so I feel a little cold air in spite of summer.

To feeling a cold like this is expressed as hadazamui (肌寒い) in Japanese.

Hada (肌) means "skin" and zamui/samui (寒い) means "to feel cold."

That is to say, hadazamui literally means to feel a little cold on your skin.

However, since hadazamu (肌寒) was originally a season word for autumn in haiku (俳句 - Japanese seventeen-syllable poems), traditionally, this term was used from the end of summer to the beginning of autumn.
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【No. 1327】Thirty-Six Books

Aug 6, 2018 12:44
Thirty-Six Books

I have been trouble deciding on a topic for posts on Lang-8 lately.

Therefore, I looked for books concerning words or culture on the Kindle store, in order to use them as a reference for a topic.

Then, I noticed that a special sale was being held -- many books were sold for 99 yen (about 89 cents).

Impulsively, I clicked "Buy now with 1-Click" button many times, and finally, I bought 36 books.

I bought various kinds of books -- books of kanji, books of English grammar, books of history, books of religion, books of trivia, etc.

I will write entries using these books starting tomorrow.
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【No. 1326】Yudan (油断 - Carelessness)

Aug 5, 2018 22:26
Yudan

To let one's guard down or to be careless is called yudan (油断) in Japanese.

Yu (油) means "oil" and dan (断) means "to cut off" or "to break."

There are two major theories about its etymology.

One is that it comes from the story of Buddhist scriptures; "A king gave his servant a bowl of oil, and said that when he spills the oil, his life would be cut off."

The other one is that it comes from the archaic Japanese word yutani (ゆたに), which means to relax.
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【No. 1325】The World's Shortest Love Letter Part 2

Aug 4, 2018 16:41
The World's Shortest Love Letter Part 2

When the New Year came, the research members in the Antarctic got messages with telegrams from their families.

Among them, a wife of a member tried to send a message from Japan by her own hands with the help of engineers.

The message was アナタ (read as 'anata'), which means "you" in English.

Since these characters looked as if it was a love letter containing various feelings, such as "love," "loneliness," and "anxiety," the research members were deeply impressed.

However, what she really wanted to say was "You, don't drink too much."
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【No. 1324】The World's Shortest Love Letter Part 1

Aug 3, 2018 16:19
Today, I would like to introduce you to the episode of the world's shortest love letter.

In 1956, the first Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition was sent to Shōwa Station in Antarctica.

And eleven of them tried to overwinter in Antarctica, but the unimaginable severity of nature hindered it.

According to records, their tents were blown off by blizzard, two-thirds of the food washed into drift ice, and they lived by eating seals and seagulls.

In that era, there was neither internet nor telephone -- the only communication means was a telegram.

It was a very precious time for them to communicate with their families using telegrams.

To be continued.
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【No. 1323】Koibumi (恋文 - Love Letter)

Aug 2, 2018 16:28
Koibumi

Yesterday, I introduced you to the Japanese word tegami (手紙), which means a "letter."

Among them, letters for expressing feelings of love are especially called koibumi (恋文) in Japanese.

Koi (恋) means "love" and bumi/fumi (文) means "sentence."

Koibumi is a literal translation of the English "love letter," and it has come to be used since around the Taishō period.

However, these days the English loanword raburetā (ラブレター) is more general than koibumi.

Tomorrow I would like to talk about some trivia concerning a love letter.