Everyday Words

You answer the phone in English: “Hello?” The Japanese phone rings, gets picked up, and instead of konnichiwa or some other greeting that exists in normal conversation, the voice on the other end says: “Moshi moshi.“…

A friend tells you they’re quitting their job to start a bakery. Sugoi. You watch a street magician make a coin disappear. Sugoi. A colleague mentions the deadline got moved up by a week. Sugoi. The…

The drinks arrive at the table. Eight people, eight glasses, a brief charged silence as everyone waits. The most senior person at the table picks up their glass. Everyone else picks theirs up half a beat…

A waiter sets down a glass of water and asks if you’d like something else. Daijoubu desu. A friend offers you a third helping. Daijoubu desu. A coworker apologizes for bumping into you. Daijoubu desu. Same…

A 70-year-old man in a charcoal suit glances at the small bear keychain dangling from your bag and says “kawaii” — softly, almost to himself. An hour later, a teenage girl uses the same word about…

If a Japanese person and an English speaker were each given a single word to take with them onto a desert island, the English speaker would probably pick something like water. The Japanese person would do…

If you have spent more than a few days in Japan, you have heard yoroshiku onegaishimasu a hundred times. It is on the lips of the colleague meeting you for the first time, the email signing…