07.Jun.2010 Nostalgia

懐かしい [なつかしい] – nostalgic; good old days; bringing fond memories

02.Jun.2010 Stimulating

刺激 [しげき] – stimulus; impetus; incentive; encouragement; motivation

刺 [シ・さす] – to stab; to pierce

激 [ゲキ・はげしい] – violent; excited; enraged; incited

To get motivated to learn Japanese, you need to get stabbed, then get angry.  Apparently.

31.May.2010 Countries

As promised, here are some other kanji substitutes for country names. Note that the full (i.e. only) kanji versions are less common these days, with the katakana versions being preferred in most cases.  This is not, by any means, a complete list, but only a sampling of what you might be likely to run into.  Enjoy!

Bird-Brain

おっちょこちょい – bird-brain; scatterbrain

I love the sound of this word.

18.May.2010 They’re Coming to America

渡米 [とべい] – going to America

• 渡 [ト・わたる] – transit; cross
• 米 [ベイ・こめ] – rice; U.S.A.

For those who didn’t know, the character for rice (米) is often used by the Japanese to indicate “America.”  Why?  Glad you asked!

In the olden days, before the word “America” came to be written in katakana, it was written 亜米利加, with each character chosen for pronunciation.  Later, it was simplified to 米国 or “rice country.”  As far as I know, the name has little, if anything, to do with actual rice.  If anyone out there knows more about this than I do, please leave a comment!

Note that other countries are also abbreviated in this manner.  I’ll tackle that tomorrow.

12.May.2010 The Karate-Chicken Connection

唐揚 [からあげ] – fried (e.g. chicken)

• 唐 [トウ・から] – China (T’ang Dynasty)
• 揚 [ヨウ・-あげ] – deep fat fry

Interestingly, the art of Karate (空手) used to be written with the character 唐.  Because the character had Chinese implications, the Japanese decided to switch from 唐手 (Chinese hand) to 空手 (empty hand), both of which are pronounced the same way.  Also of interest (to me, anyway) is that the Korean art Tang Soo Do is written 唐手道, meaning “Way of the Chinese Hand.”  The next time your friends deny a connection between Chinese, Japanese, and Korean martial arts, point them here.

09.May.2010 Haha no Hi

母の日 [ははのひ] – Mother’s Day

• 母の [ははの] – Mother’s (the particle の makes the previous word possessive)
• 日 [ニチ・ひ] – day; sun

03.May.2010 Touchouki

盗聴器 [とうちょうき] – bug; wiretap; a listening device

• 盗 [トウ・ぬすむ] – to steal; to rob
• 聴 [チョウ・きく] – to listen; to inquire
• 器 [キ・うつわ] – device; instrument

I love how (some) Japanese compound words work.  A bug is a device that allows you to steal listening.

30.Apr.2010 Kyuusen

休戦 [きゅうせん] – truce; armistice

• 休 [キュウ・やすむ] – rest; break
• 戦 [セン・いくさ・たたかう] – war; battle; fight

29.Apr.2010 Kami no Ke

髪の毛 [かみのけ] – hair (on the head)

I’ve always found this phrase interesting in that it uses two different kanji for “hair” to describe hair that is specifically on the head.  Let’s break it down:

• 髪 [ハツ・かみ] – hair (of the head)
• の – grammatical particle that means “of”
• 毛 [モウ・け] – fur; hair; feather; down

So… head hair fur, it is.

While we’re talking about hair, here are a few more examples:

前髪 [まえがみ] – bangs (lit. “front-hair”)

眉毛 [まゆげ] – eyebrows (lit. “eyebrow-hair”)

睫毛 [まつげ] – eyelashes (lit. “eyelashes-hair”)