We all know learning vocab words one at a time doesn't work. But I will try anyway.
Not to be confused with the Koohii Lounge "Today I Learned" thread, for all things non-Japanese.

I watch anime with subtitles, all the time. Yes, I'm a bad Japanese learner. But anyway, I found some subs in Japanese for Star Driver Ep 12 so I thought I would check it out. The line I'm talking about is here:

開け　電気柩！
Open the cybercasket!

This line is said by one of the various members of the enemy faction in Star Driver. It's a once an episode thing.

柩 - coffin, casket

On top of that, this kanji is ultra-rare. My keyword: coffin. It's an intersection with 棺 from Heisig so just be careful. Story: Wood, box, and a long time come together to create an image of a coffin.

柩
Interesting looking kanji... not sure if it's because I'm not used to it, or that it's just a cool looking combination of radicals...

Good thread too! Sounds like a good place to learn new vocab

Today a lang-8 friend told me about the word 湾曲 when I wrote about a spinal curve and used 曲がる。

Also learned these words for lang-8 friends today
腎臓 kidney
多大 extensive/great
尊厳死 death with dignity, similar to euthanasia
人工呼吸器 artificial breathing machine

I learned 女々しい on Saturday night. I was waiting for a friend, who ended up being late, so I ended up trying to get a girls bar to let me in (I know I'm a sucker, but there was a time sale and you can't help but love sexy santa outfits. For the record, I've only gone three times in the three years I've lived here). Anyway, after ten minutes of proving I could speak Japanese, and a guy asking his boss and one of the girls if it was okay, they let me in.

So, I was talking to one of the girls there, and we were talking about dating in Japan. She said a lot of Japanese men lately are 女々しい, which I didn't understand until she wrote down the kanji and then I could easily guess the meaning. Anyway, yeah, it means effeminate or unmanly. I like to think of it as woman-woman-ish or 'too(two)-woman-ly', based on how it's written.

臨床哲学 - Clinical philosophy

I was listening to this philosophy podcast (Philosophy Zoo) when I first heard the term. It raised an eyebrow because I've never heard "clinical philosophy" used by anyone in both my undergrad and grad studies in philosophy. But apparently, Osaka University's philosophy department devotes a lot of research to this subject.

Edit: the episode 「ひきこもりの哲学」 may interest some of you. It's an interview with a philosopher who dropped out of high school when he was 15 years old, and then became a hikikomori for 12 years. He's now a doctoral student in sociology at Chiba University.

I have learned まいう　-> the reverse of うまい　(good taste)

MakiSushi Wrote:I have learned まいう　-> the reverse of うまい　(good taste)

Well, actually, it's the "catch phrase" of a Japanese talent (forget the name off hand) who's famous for touring various restuarants and using that line まいう. Granted, I only know that because my wife explained it to me a month or so ago.

it is 石塚ひでひこ (Ishizuka hidehiko)

the まいう stuff is even on wikipedia :
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/石塚英彦

中でもテレビ東京の『元祖!でぶや』出演時には、料理を頬張った後に「まいうー」（「美味い」の業界用語）と発言するのが定番で、これにより「駄洒落とデブ」のポストを確保した。

好ましい (nice, desirable) was new today. I think it was used to describe a car's 乗り心地 (driving feel).

I remember hearing 女々しい used as an insult in an anime. First word i've encountered that uses the め reading of 女, which is what the hiragana was derived from. I wonder if the reading was more common back then?

Edit: I forgot about 女神. Still, it's not common.

Was at a party and a someone said むらむら by mistake. They wanted another word but used that one and everyone got a big laugh out of it.

Other words I recently learned...

チンする　　cook in the microwave. チン is the sound the microwave bell makes.

To count people instead of using slashes and then crossing out the last one to count five people like in English -> ||||| In japan you use the Kanji 正　(5 strokes) and make each stroke count as a person.

Also, for pronunciation when ふ　is not at the front it sounds more like "hu" instead of "fu".
so 富士山　fujisan and 台風　sounds more like taihuu as well as 豆腐　touhu. Never really noticed it before.

I finished reading すごいよ!!マサルさん and noticed some funny 死語 in the last volume.

ナウい - 80s slang meaning trendy, hip
激マブ - from マブい, an outdated way to say cute

I was talking about them in a chat room, and some of the reactions were pretty funny. I think people would have been less surprised by swear words. From that conversation, I also learnt わけわかめ （訳が分からない）(ワカメ is a kind of seaweed, so it's a horrible ダジャレ), and some believe that although winning the 新語 award in 2007, KY is on its way out.

Now do your best to forget the words I've introduced

What is KY?

I had not lived here in a long time, and here are some of the things I have picked up lately...

替玉 かえだま　A refill of men for your ramen. There's a big place on the main street of akihabara with 500 yen tonkotsu ramen and 「替玉無料」.

Hot sake has different temperatures you can order. An awesome sushi chef at a really expensive place told me never to order atsukan （熱燗）at a place like that. You should order 温燗　ぬるかん　because atsukan is 50 degrees or more, and it's too hot for high quality subtle sushi...

Actually, the expert way to order warm sake at a real good place is お銚子（ちょうし）つけて.

You should also call ahead and ask how much the 単価 is before going to a very good place -- how much you are expected to spend. If you don't spend that much, you may not be allowed back.

In Fukuoka/Hakata, tonkotsu ramen is famous. it has really thin noodles. The cool guys order the noodles very hard -- they call it ばりがた。　Soft is called やわ。 Then there are 普通　and かた。　

Also, scotch / whisky casks are referred to as 樽　たる. There is a lot of whisky/sake/wine vocab to learn if you want to be able to discuss things properly. I am just learning in these areas... These are the sort of things that are definitely hard to pick up (and not worth it, really) unless you're here.

torokun Wrote:You should also call ahead and ask how much the 単価 is before going to a very good place -- how much you are expected to spend. If you don't spend that much, you may not be allowed back.

Yeah, some places are picky about how much you spend, haha.

It even works that way for reservations. I was trying to make reservations for a going away party for my friend at a place that does sukiyaki and fugu. But you could only make reservations for the fugu course meals, all of which were like 15,000 yen per person. You could only get the 8,000-ish sukiyaki courses by taking a gamble and going to the restaurant that night.

torokun Wrote:What is KY?

ＫＹ is 空気読めない

oh yeah... I haven't heard that in a long time.

At the awesome sushi place I mentioned, apparently the 単価 was about 20k. We went with about 10 people and had his entire course, and some sake and beer. It only came to about 12k per person, so the guy gave me a big lecture about it (politely, but it would be considered extremely rude in the US, certainly). I went along and we tried to spend some more by ordering some toro, etc., and more sake until they closed...

recently, one of my favourite japanese words is オールマイティー (almighty).
especially when it is used with the meaning of "smth that can be used in different ways", e.g. almighty vacuum cleaner.

足音 footsteps
The curveball here is that 足 uses its Japanese reading here.
If you remember "the sound of feet" you will have an easy way to remember this word.

torokun Wrote:Also, scotch / whisky casks are referred to as 樽　たる.

That reminds me of a good word - 樽ドル. ドル comes from アイドル. It's used to describe overweight gravure models.

色男 (いろおとこ) - lover/sexy guy/lady killer.

Seems 色 does not just mean colour, but is also linked to love/lust/sex...interesting.

aphasiac Wrote:色男 (いろおとこ) - lover/sexy guy/lady killer.

Seems 色 does not just mean colour, but is also linked to love/lust/sex...interesting.

Yep, like 色っぽい.

Or 色情狂.

or 色気

Learned some business japanese....

On return envelopes there will be a 行　kanji after the return address.

Always cross it out by hand and change it to 様　for personal return addresses and for business change it to 御中　（おんちゅう）。 It's considered rude not too to do it.

When discussing a complicated subject if you don't understand the main point and use
わかりません it's a little too direct and the person might just drop the subject thinking it's to complicated. It's better to say とうもしますと　to get them to rephrase the response.

zigmonty Wrote:

aphasiac Wrote:色男 (いろおとこ) - lover/sexy guy/lady killer.

Seems 色 does not just mean colour, but is also linked to love/lust/sex...interesting.

Yep, like 色っぽい.

Also, there is 男前.

To keep this great thread near the top for more contributions, I'll quickly contribute one:

気管支炎

Because I just found out I got it New Year's Eve.