love injection

A really drunk guy taught me this as we downed shots at a bar in Shinjuku.  I didn't know him, was meeting him for the first time, but once he heard me speaking English to some of my friends, he got in on the conversation.  I'm not sure what prompted him to teach me this little nugget, but here it is:

ラブ注入 rabu chuunyuu
 He said that it translates as "love injection."

Below is a video of a show on TV,They use ラブ注入 as a spark for a bit of comedy.  It looks like it's a couple of years old.  Those AKB girls looks so young.  This kind of "variety show" isn't exactly my cup of tea, but they're wildly popular in Japan. . .I don't think they seriously hurt anybody.






PS  When I first heard of this "love injection,"  I recalled this scene from The Breakfast Club, in which the character Bender uses the phrase "hot beef injection."  It's a bit crude, but I have to admit it made me laugh out loud.  I loved that movie.

you reap what you sow

自業自得 (Jigou Jitoku)

This was the first Japanese proverb that I learned.  "You reap what you sow"; in more casual terms, "That's what you get. . ."  Also, "just desserts."  The basic sentiment: we get what we deserve, what we ourselves have earned.  

living creatures (生き物)

living thing =　生き物　（いきもの）
One of my favorite Japanese words.

There's a band called Ikimono-gakari (いきものがかり)
They're quite popular with my high school and college students.

 

ちゅう （チュウ)

Onomatopoeia for kiss

You might see it in manga and anime

love

愛 Ai

This song brings back memories.  Not long before I moved from Hawai'i to Japan, I saw a TV show called "Ai wo Kudasai," which translates literally to "Love, Please" or "Give Me Love."  It was a good story, I thought.  The main character (played by Kanno Miho) is an orphan who suffered terrible abuse in her childhood.  She sings the song "Zoo," whose climax is the line"Ai wo Kudasai." It might sound a little corny as I've explained it, but if you watch the series and listen to the song in context, I think you'll like it.

Here are a couple of videos:

There's a nice harmonica solo in the middle. And this is the song by the band that originally put it together.

doyagao (どや顔)

I just learned this one at the end of last year.  Doyagao is, according to my high school students, a proud or even narcissistic facial expression.  (Kao, of course, means "face.")  After looking it up online I found out that the word came onto the scene in 2011--my bad for not having learned it back then.  But the fact that my students told me about it half a year ago suggests that, while being a slang word, it isn't yet obsolete.

Came across this great explanation of the word on YouTube:

geki ni （げきに）

The friend who taught me this phrase said it meant "Sugee niteiru ( すげぇーにている )."  I supposed some English equivalents would be "(someone's) double," "lookalike," doppleganger.

He taught it to me a few years ago, maybe four or five.  At the time, it seemed like a newer word; I guessed that it might have been a slang term created and used by younger people, as a lot of my older students and acquaintances had never heard it and didn't understand me when I tried to use it.  It didn't seem to offend anyone, as slang sometimes does. . .In fact, it brought some to laughter.  I never knew why.

似る / 似ている ( にる / にている )

To say that A and B are niteiru (似ている, or にている） is to say that A and B are similar, that they look like each other or resemble each other.  I've only ever heard people here use the present progressive form, e.g. ゆにといきものがかりの吉岡 聖恵 はにている　(Yuni looks like Kiyoe Yoshioka of Ikimono Gakari). 

*Ikimono Gakari is a Jpop /rock band, 
see http://ikimonogakari.com

for here or to go

Two of the most helpful phrases I learned my first month in Japan were koko de and omochi kaeri.  I needed to know them for fast food places and cafes.  In Japan, just as they do at McDonalds and Starbucks all around the world, cashiers start to close the transaction by asking if you'll be dining in or taking out.  

The cashier will most likely use keigo, the super-polite language that "inferiors" are expected to use toward their superiors, in the world of business and commerce.  In keigo, are you eating here usually translates as "Kochira de meshiagari desu ka?"  (kochira = here, meshiagaru = eat / drink) or "Tennai de meshiagari desu ka?" ( tennai = 店内 being "inside our shop")

Ai-chan, the assistant manager of my school when I first moved here, told me to say "Koko de" (lit. "here") for dining in and "Omochi kaeri' (lit. carry home) for takeout.  I used it and it worked.  That weekend I told my friend Ben about it and he used it a few days later.  For both of us it was one of the most exciting linguistic experiences we' had up to that point.  Actually saying something and seeing the dawn of comprehension in another's eyes.

I guess it'd be nice and polite to put in a "kudasai "at the end of the sentence.

More recently, I've been seeing "takeout" as a katakana phrase.

 

"takeout menu" in katakana

OHA

A lot of my students say "OHA" when they arrive at school.

OHA = Ohayou gozaimasu (おはようございます）

One moment, please

Chotto matte kudasai （ちょっと待って下さい　/ 　ちょっとまってください）is the most common term for "just a minute please."  It's also the name of a traditional Japanese children's song.

The keigo version is sho sho omachi kudasai (少々お待ち下さい、しょしょおまちください).

 Below is a link to a website that has on it a bunch of versions of the children's song.
http://www.songlust.com/s/16/sandpipers_chotto_matte_kudasai.html
(I love the name of the site, "songlust."  I can't imagining coming up with a word like that myself, but I think it's awesome.)

And, of course, there are tons of versions on YouTube.  I like this 'ukulele version, some nice playing:





 and here's a version by a an "idol girl group" called Smileage.  Not really my kind of music, but again, what a great word to create; and this is seriously a part of modern Japanese culture.