陰口 [かげぐち] – gossip; talking about someone behind their back
If you have a secret, shady mouth, you might be talking about people behind their backs.
You’ve like already seen 陰 in the form 陰陽. In Japanese, it is pronounced いんよう, but you’re probably more likely to recognize it as it’s read in Chinese: Yin/Yang.
辰年 [たつどし] – year of the dragon
Happy 2012 from nihongo à gogo!
認知症 [にんちしょう] – cognitive impairment; senility; dementia
偽旗作戦 [にせはたさくせん] – False Flag
The phrase “False Flag” refers to a covert action, often of a military nature, that is designed to deceive the public into thinking that the action was taken by another country or party. It comes from the military concept of raising a flag other than one’s own to deceive the enemy. (偽旗 is a literal translation of “False Flag.”)
乾坤一擲 [けんこんいってき] - to play for all or nothing; throwing all into a task; to stake everything (on something)
乾坤 [けんこん] – heaven and earth; universe
一擲 [いってき] – cast off
平衡感覚 [へいこうかんかく] – sense of equilibrium or balance
平衡 [へいこう] – equilibrium; balance
感覚 [かんかく] – sense; feeling
The word in Japanese for “balance beam” (as in gymnastics) is:
平均台 「へいきんだい」
In the wake of the massive earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster in Japan, one of the more common phrases I’m hearing and using when talking to friends over there is 無事 [ぶじ]. This compound comprises two characters: 無 (no, nothing) and 事 (thing, incident). 無事 is used to communicate that one is safe or that an event has passed “without incident.”
窮屈 [きゅうくつ] – narrow; tight; stiff
立春 [りっしゅん] – the first day of spring
According to the Japanese calendar, Spring is supposed to “stand up” on February 4th this year. Tell that to the millions of people all over the US who are buried under feet of snow and ice!
鬼は外、福は内!
節分 [せつぶん] – A holiday celebrating the last day of winter in the traditional Japanese calendar
Happy Setsubun!