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. 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 means “happiness” as in 幸 （しあわ）せ and 幸福（こうふく）. 空く/空いている Reading/Meaning あく/あいている, “become/be vacant, free, not occupied”…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). 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 situation that is extremely hard and apparently impossible to overcome.  For instance, if you’re a…Read More