何だっけ

チューッ

サイコロ

me Louie notices tomatoes arrived at the café あ、トマトトーストをお願いします Manami トマトオンリー？オーケ！ スライス、サイコロ…？ me サイコロ？！ The café staff and I are often playing dumb games with each other. One of Manami’s favorites is pretending she didn’t hear what I said. When I asked for tomato toast (not on the menu), she pretended not to hear the word “toast,” then listed different ways of serving a tomato. スライス ( suraisu ,…

寒いと暑い

Contrary to what Japanese people will tell you, there are only two seasons in Japan. Each are clearly understood by a single metric. For half of the year, everyone says 寒い ( samui , it’s cold) until one day when everyone switches to saying 暑い ( atsui , it’s hot) . There are also some differences in formality and severity. Japanese English Meaning Usage さむいですね samui desu ne It’s cold, isn’t it?…

シュワちゃん

As a refresher: さん ( -san ) : for someone older or more experienced, like adults. Polite and respectful. ちゃん ( -chan ) : for someone younger or less experienced, like children or pets. A little endearing. くん ( -kun ) : for a close friend or pal, mainly among boys. In Japanese, Arnold Schwarzenegger is known as シュワちゃん ( Shuwa-chan ) . Chan ! Complete opposite of Winnie the Pooh . So why is it ちゃん…

えっ?!

I mostly speak English with my friends in Japan, but Japanese finds its way into nearly every conversation. Mostly from them, but sometimes from me. Just simple everyday things. But one of these things managed to find its way into nearly every conversation with my English-speaking friends: え〜 ( eh , expression of surprise) . It’s great for any time when someone says something unexpected. Also,…

もぐもぐ

Overhearing Japanese conversation every day, I notice a decent amount of onomatopoeia. Japanese equivalents for slurp, sizzle, and crunch are far more common than I am used to in everyday English conversation. Not to mention, the landscape for food-specific onomatopoeia is vast. Every time I hear one, I do a double-take because some of them sound so implausible. Yet, they are nearly universally…

地獄耳

Masa ◯◯ピザ◯◯ミートソース◯◯チーズ◯◯ me Louie removes headphones Hm? Pizza? Meat sauce, cheese? Manami 地獄耳！ There doesn’t seem to be a very good English word for 地獄耳 ( jigokumimi , hell’s ears) . This uncommon phrase refers to the ability to overhear secrets. It’s not just eavesdropping, in fact, it's less about trying to overhear something. It’s more about hearing something you weren’t supposed to.

おはようございます

I love to walk into my daily cafe at noon, and everyone’s all like おはようございます ( ohayō gozaimasu , good morning) while I point to my watch which shows 12:01. They’ll all give a tiny sigh and say こんにちは ( konnichiwa , hello / good afternoon) . 😤

はち

Twice in the last week, I’ve had a conversation with a Japanese person that included the word bee. It went something like this: 🙂 There was a bee! 🧐 ...B? 😤 Bee. 🤔 Bean? まめ ( mame , bean) ? 🥲 Bee. はち ( hachi , bee) . 😅 はち ( hachi , eight) ? 😫 はち。 Bee. 😮‍💨 Oh! Bee!

青

There’s a type of card in 花札 ( hanafuda , flower cards) called 短冊 ( tanzaku , poetry slips) . There are three varieties: 赤たん ( aka-tan , red tanzaku) , 青たん ( ao-tan , blue tanzaku) , and the plain variety, simply referred to as tanzaku. Besides the strangeness of the plain tanzaku also being red, the so-called blue tanzaku are hardly what I would call blue. Instead, they’re more purple. For the…

大丈夫

I started learning 日本語 ( nihongo , Japanese language) when I became interested in 花札 ( hanafuda , flower cards) . At the time, my vocabulary was 100% plant-based. 松 ( matsu , pine) , 桜 ( sakura , cherry blossoms) , and 柳 ( yanagi , willow) . Not very useful outside of hanafuda or 花見 ( hanami , flower viewing) . But it’s what I’m interested in. I needed more than that to live in Japan, so I started…

クマのプーさん

こんにちは ( konnichiwa , hello) ! Welcome to 何だっけ ( Nandakke ) , a silly observational blog about me learning Japanese. Learn more about this blog. And yes! There’s an RSS feed . For some initial context, in Japanese there are honorifics appended to people’s names. さん ( -san ) : for someone older or more experienced, like adults. Polite and respectful. ちゃん ( -chan ) : for someone younger or less…