When you start studying Japanese, one of the first things you learn is that sentence structure will not be anything like what you’re used to. Japanese is a SOV (subject-object-verb) language, compared to the SVO structure of English, so right off the bat things are laid out differently. Parts of Japanese sentences are “marked” with grammatical particles that denote the subject, object, predicate and so on, although these are often omitted from actual speech (as are superfluous things like subjects). Often, a given vocabulary word will “map” to English differently. For example, there are two ways to express the concept of “cold” in Japanese: “tsumetai” (cold to the touch) and “samui” (coldness in the air). In English, we use the word “good” to refer both to quality (a car, a shirt) and taste (pizza, ice cream), but in Japanese these concepts are separated: something that’s good is ii (pronounced like the letter “E”), but things that taste good are oishii (tasty). If you’ve ever noticed Japanese to over-use the word “delicious” when talking about food, this is the reason. While some of the differences between the two languages were hard and took getting used to, there were times when I actually get a break. Whole sections of English grammar like conditional sentences (“if I had only known she would be late…”), helping verbs and so on have no equivalent in Japanese and can be happily ignored.
If you watch anime in Japanese at all, one word you will probably become aware of quickly is suki which means “like” (usually said quickly, so that it sounds like “ski”). The proper usage would be something like watashi wa sushi ga suki desu, literally “as for sushi, I like it.” Since Japanese like to omit unnecessary words, a more common version would be just sushi ga suki, “[I] like sushi,” since the subject is generally understood. When one person confesses their feelings for another in anime, suki desu is what they’ll probably say, although this is actually using the word for “like” rather than “love.” That would be ai shiteru but it’s almost never used because most people feel it sounds corny. A variation of suki (“like”) is dai-suki (“big-like”), usually said by a cute female anime character before they glomp a male character violently in a big bear-hug.
If you’ve ever been to Japan, one thing that might have stood out to you is the way restaurants display wax replicas of their meals in a glass case in the front of the restaurant, which lets customers get a feel for the food before going inside. Accurately recreating food in wax so that it looks delicious enough to eat is an art form in Japan, and the artists who create the fake wax food are very much in demand by restaurants who want to show how good their meals are to potential customers passing by on the street. The wax replica food served as the inspiration for Re-Ment, the company that’s so good at making tiny miniature versions of Japanese food as well as kitchen items, school supplies, household goods, and anything else you can think of — everything they make is fabulously detailed, complete with little chopsticks and silverware, and are a fun way to sample this aspect of Japanese culture. Re-Ment toys are great whether you want to display the amazing miniatures as-is, use them with conventional dolls, or whatever. (Full sets of most Re-Ment items are usually in stock.)
Well, my sojourn in the U.S. is finally at an end, and it’s time for me to head back to Japan. I’ve had a lot of fun with my kids in America, taking them to see parts of their “second” country that are new to them and letting them see what a big, interesting place America is. I’m headed home today, leaving the kids behind to polish their English skills some more, and giving me some kid-free quality time with my wife, muhahaha! I’ll see you on the other side of the pond.
Remember that J-List carries dozens of great yaoi products for fans of this unique art form from Japan. We also have the very first “BL” PC dating-sim game ported to English, a great title called Enzai – Falsely Accused, a great dating-sim with a complex story set in Napoleonic France. Our 2nd yaoi title, the gorgeous Absolute Obedience, is very near to being completed, too — you can preorder it for free shipping when it’s ready!
To see all the J-List products, check out J-List or the JBOX.com updated products link.
