Recently an American friend of mine who works as a professor at a Japanese university told me he bought a mansion, and I congratulated him on being so rich that he could afford a large house in Japan. We were kidding around of course: in Japan a “mansion” is what a condominium in a high-rise building is called, for most people the only way they can ever own their own home, since finding a patch of land for sale then building a house on it is an extremely expensive prospect. In addition to “mansion,” there are some other English words that mean slightly different things in Japan, including rouge (what lipstick is called), manicure (nail polish), hip (which always means the buttocks), limousine bus (those comfortable buses they have at airports), cooler (air conditioner), and the bizarre “hormone,” which in Japan refers to fried pork intestines, a delicacy of Osaka.
A “mansion” is a classy apartment building. Can you tell whose this is?
