Takashi's Japanese Dictionary

A blog for learning Japanese that introduces Japanese slang words and Idioms!

Puzzling Japanese Kanji Words With 2 Reading/Meanings

This post introduces confusing Japanese kanji words that have two different readings and meanings, with one example sentence for each that contains both usages. When you encounter these words in a text, make sure you always take the context into account to confirm their meaning/reading. Table of Contents 辛いReading/MeaningExampleAdditional Note空く/空いているReading/MeaningExampleAdditional Note臭いReading/MeaningExampleAdditional Note今日Reading/MeaningExampleAdditional Note一日Reading/MeaningExampleAdditional Note人気Reading/MeaningExampleAdditional Note大事Reading/MeaningExampleAdditional Note最中Reading/MeaningExampleAdditional Note十八番Reading/MeaningExampleAdditional Note被るReading/MeaningExampleAdditional Note体育MeaningReadingExampleAdditional Note雰囲気MeaningReadingExampleAdditional Note 辛い Reading/Meaning からい, “hot, spicy” つらい, “tough, hard, painful” Example 辛（から）い食べ物だけを１時間食べ続けるなんて、私には辛（つら）すぎる。 It is too painful for me to keep eating only spicy food for one hour. Additional Note For some people, eating spicy (からい) food can be quite painful (つらい). Furthermore, there is also a similar-looking kanji “幸”, which…Read More

Funny Japanese Gaming Slang Terms

This post introduces Japanese slang words that come from video gaming terms. Note that most of them are often (not always) used on the internet, and hence recognised among young ~ middle-aged people only (but they have been used for more than a decade or two, so they are likely to exist for a while longer). Table of Contents 無理ゲー (murigē)ヌルゲー (nurugē)クソゲー (kusogē)運ゲー (ungē)ガチャ (gacha)ハードモード (hard mode)縛りプレイ (shibari play)舐めプ (namepu)ガチ勢 (gachizei) 無理ゲー (murigē) 無理ゲー (murigē) means “a (video) game that is too hard and almost impossible to clear”, where 無理 (むり) means “impossible” and ゲー is short for ゲーム (game). Figuratively, it is also used to describe a task or…Read More