Today’s J-Slang is…

[podcast]http://media.libsyn.com/media/japanese/jslang09.mp3[/podcast]

太っ腹

Futoppara = to generous, broad minded, openhearted

彼って太っ腹だね

kare tte futoppara da ne = He’s a really broadminded guy

Although the Kanji 太っ腹 literally means fat stomach, it really refers to someone who is generous or openminded. In the past, travellers to Japan were often shocked when new Japanese acquaintances would give compliments such as “Nice to meet you Mr Smith. my, how fat you are”.

Of ocurse, these days, calling someone fat in Japan would not be a good idea unless you wanted to get a slap in the face. Women have been brought up on a diet of photoshopped magazine stick insect models as the rest of world has. It’s interesting that although 太っ腹  literally migh be quite rude, it has retained its positive real meaning and can be used as a compliment. And that’s phat!

Learn Japanese Pod is four years old! Happy birthday to us! Four years, three apartments, two mac books and one relationship later, here we are still making podcasts for all you eager students of Japanese. I had no idea LJP would become such a great place to meet people interested Japanese and Japan. We’ve made some great friends and had a great deal of fun along the way.

Learn Japanese Pod started out under the vaguest and most pathetic of plans: “I guess I’ll just do it for a laugh”. So here’s to vague and pathetic plans. And here’s to all of you who listened to the podcast and supported it. Without your help, support, comments and general correspondences LJP would only be a mere shadow of itself and not the gargantuan, green, Tokyo skyscraper munching monster it has become.

As we are on the thankyous, a huge thank you to:

Beb: She made the podcast possible. Let’s face it, you only listen because of her don’t you?

Waka sensei: She spent countless hours recording podcasts, checking the show notes were OK and generally being cute.

Karamoon: He was the tech guy and ideas man for us. On one occassion he single-handedly saved the forums from digital oblivion.

Daniel and Yuki: They’re a cute couple. Daniel has been our audio engineer and Yuki has appeared on various shows teaching us Japanese.

You: yes YOU! Not you! YOU! Another huge shout out to all of you who listened to the show and are interested in Japanese culture.

This list is endless but for those of you who haven’t been mentioned you know who you are. Thank you, thank you, thank you and that’s three thank yous!

Here’s to another four years.

Today’s J-Slang is…

[podcast]http://media.libsyn.com/media/japanese/jslang08.mp3[/podcast]

おっちょこちょい

Occhokochoi = to be clumsy

おっちょこちょいだね

kanojo tte occhokochoi da ne = She’s really clumsy isn’t she

This has to be one of my favorite words in Japanese partly because of the way it rolls off the tongue. I wouldn’t say this is a particularly mean word. It is usually used for children or between friends and contains an element of cuteness or fondness of the person it is being used for. For example, “oh look at little Kenta, he’s dropped his build blocks, bless…(he’s clumsy)”

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<p><strong>What</strong>: Eating sushi with Beb</p>
<p><strong>Where</strong>: Osaka</p>
<p><strong>Why</strong>: Cos it’s so damn delish…</p>
<p align=”justify”>This video is of Beb taking me to one of her local sushi restaurants. It was cheap, cheerful, delicious and had gadgets. What more could you want from a sushi restaurant?</p>
<p align=”justify”>Since this was a Kaiten sushi restaurant, you could just take sushi from the moving conveyor belt. However they also had an LCD touch panel display for ordering special dishes. Not only that but after eating, you put your empty dishes in a slot which counted them and you were billed accordingly. One gimmick that made me laugh was the chance to win a prize after every 10 dishes you put in the slot. We didn’t win anything… However with sushi that good and cheap I couldn’t complain and Beb was in Beb heaven. </p>
<p><strong><em>Here are the names of he sushi mentioned in this video:</em></strong></p>
<p>Natto – Fermented beans</p>
<p>Ebi – Prawns</p>
<p>Tamago – Egg</p>
<p>Nama aji – Raw horse mackerel</p>
<p>Ika – Squid</p>
<p>Unagi – Eel</p>
<p>Kani miso – Crab in miso</p>
<p>Hamachi – Yellow tail</p>
<p>Teka maki – Tuna roll</p>
<p>Ohba maika – Squid with shiso leaves</p>
<p>Ikura – Salmon roe</p>
<p>Katsuo no tataki – Lightly roasted bonito</p>
<p>Dashi maki – Rolled Egg</p>
<p>Kyuri Maki – Cucumber roll</p>
<p>Tai – Sea bream</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Some other phrases in this video:</p>
<h2><strong>一番好きな寿司はなんですか？</strong></h2>
<p><em>ichiban suki na shishi wa nan desu ka</em></p>
<p>What is your favorite sushi?</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2><strong>生鯵が好き</strong></h2>
<p><em>nama aji ga suki</em></p>
<p>I like raw horse mackerel</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>おいしい</h2>
<p><em>oishshii</em></p>
<p>delicious</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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<p>&nbsp;</p>

In this video, Beb teaches us some interesting gestures in Japanese. Can you guess what they mean? Answers are at the end of the video

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