One Book to Triple Your Fun in Japan
* Pre-order the book on Amazon.jp or Amazon.com *
The book Yabai: Your Key to Japanese Civilization
Japan can loom as an intimidating, complex, serious, and closed place. Its language can seem so tough to learn, its culture can come across as so intricate it’s vexing, and it can almost appear accessible only to those who spent college learning it.
Many visitors use the word “daunting” to describe the task of understanding this civilization and language. Others have said the complexity of Japan’s language–where three alphabets are colliding — is a way to keep the visitors out.
Another path is possible–learning Japanese through romanized alphabet you are reading now– called romaji in Japan.
Coming out on August 24th, the solution is here: the book Yabai!
Yabai! is a rebuttal to those who claim Japan is so hard to understand, that those who don’t speak Japanese after age 22 should not bother, that the country is too insular. Japan understandably wanted to keep out the violent colonizing nations for centuries. Since then, it has overcome its sakoku legacy (closed nation policies during the Edo era) and gradually changed for the better. A New York-based journalist friend who knows Japan well said over lunch in Akasaka in 2023 that Japan has “earned the most improved award” for the overall societal progress it’s made in the last decade. I’ve found it to be one of the more hospitable places on earth. Japanese friends have been grateful for efforts to get to know their colorful language and way of life.
We’d be mistaken to think we need to memorize over 2,000 kanji characters (Japan’s third alphabet and the most complex filled with thousands of unique and complicated-box-looking diagrams) to speak enough Japanese to live. I mistakenly thought this. Believing we need to spend two years learning kanji is a myth. Fortunately, kanji characters have met a formidable foe in machine translation and Google lens.
One can learn enough Japanese without the two-year commitment, albeit not fluent Japanese enough to do a business meeting. Enough will allow someone to have dinner or drinking conversations, navigate the country, have relationships, and more. Knowing enough can help people get out of the expat bubble and double the fun of living in Japan. This book is for them.
You can go beyond the small circle of Japanese who speak English. It will be more yabai!
The Book Reminds Full Fluency Isn’t Needed
Enough Japanese allows someone to run, albeit not go as far as a marathon. Knowing some vocabulary can still triple your fun in Japan even if you’re not fluent in Japanese. To break it down in running terms:
Oblivious Tourists/Expats: Barely walking. Not trying to learn Japanese. Confined to Google translate software.
Conversational Expats: Wanting to run a 5km race. Happy to speak in Japanese around town, chat in Japanese with local friends or romantic partners, and eager to shed the ‘tourist’ image. They don’t need Japanese since many business meetings are in English, yet they want to understand Japanese conversations at the izakaya or broaden their social circle beyond the English-speaking peers. The book Yabai! is for you!
Fluent Long-time Residents of Japan: Marathon runners. The lucky few who learned Japanese as a youngster, during college, or as a JET exchange program member. They use Japanese in business meetings. This book could also be for you, especially if you have spent time outside of Japan recently, though perhaps unnecessary. Check it out.
More Slang, The More People Respect You
Yabai! is proof someone does not have to train for a marathon in order to run. Intermediate running, or conversational Japanese, can take someone far in Japan. One’s social life dramatically improves by knowing 200+ slang words, like those in this book. Japanese friends truly appreciate it, friendships deepen, humor gets created in conversations, and one does not feel lost. Having used these words for three years, I realized visitors can lose a “tourist” label by knowing enough colloquial vocabulary.
Japan is evolving, and it has been delightful to meet Japanese in izakayas (Bessho Onsen in Nagano comes to mind) or on the streets sheltering other pedestrians from the rain, friends at the Foreign Ministry, or friends’ parents (looking at the cheerful Nagai family in Nagano!) who show true hospitality (omotenashi). In honor of the open-hearted Japanese friends I have been blessed to meet, this book extends an olive branch to the country’s newcomers. Japan can be accessible.
Peel back the surface layer and one finds a fun-loving, warm side to Japan. Knowing these conversational words and phrases can help ease someone into that more welcoming side of the archipelago and offer another door into the Nihongo (Japanese language) kingdom.
Lastly, full-time Japanese language teachers often worry that teaching casual Japanese will lead to impoliteness of foreigners who say a casual word in a dignified setting and offend someone. They fail to recognize, though, that in formal situations foreigners usually are conversing with English-speaking counterparts or have interpreters.
Teachers also fail to mention another risk: when students cannot connect with Japanese in casual situations. These are settings where no interpreters are present. This is when it really helps to know casual Japanese, like enjoying drinks with friends. This book can save many moments and allow foreigners to stay connected through the Japanese language.
Get Updated on Modern Japan
For those already fluent, seeing the latest slang could serve as a prism to see how it’s changing. Returnees (kikokushiijo) could refresh their cultural vocabulary by reading the book, too. Some expats who mastered Japanese in the 1980s could be totally lost when hearing newer terms like powahara (power harassment), Showa-poi (very “Showa era” as “poi” is a word adding emphasis to the preceding word), rouru kyabetsu danshi (a seemingly aggressive man who is actually gentle inside), yanki (urban hipsters), or ikiokure (unmarried woman in her 30s). Further, the book could be useful for Japan veterans who want to buy real estate, navigate regional dialects, or refine knowledge of Japan’s sake (nihonshu) drinking culture.
Illuminate New Parts of Japanese Society
For those interested in Japanese culture, it could be illuminating to read Yabai! and witness the modern Japanese lexicon. Some of its words have emerged to call out people for acting outside of expectations for good social norms. Names get applied to what someone shouldn’t be, like KY (someone who can’t read the social atmosphere, standing for Kuuki Yomenai), kamattechan (attention seeker) or sodai gomi (“big trash” to describe a lazy husband) or otsubone (an arrogant senior woman in the office). One almost never comes across words to describe someone neatly fitting into society. The only word that comes to mind for that is atarimae for “conventional” or “standard procedure” (see chapter 48).
You’re not going to learn KY, sodai gomi, kamattechan, or otsubone in most Japanese language classes which often suffer from an excess of formality and propriety, however.
Add Laughs to Your Conversations
Nothing is more endearing to new friends than making them laugh by showing some cultural clues. These words are nearly guaranteed to provoke laughter when you use them in conversation:
Barechatta: Someone found guilty doing something — in an amusing way.
Bakappuru: A ridiculously funny couple.
Boku wa yonsaii no yoni hanasu: “I talk like a five year old.”
Doki doki, Waku waku: Excited! (While saying these two verbs one after each other and flap your wings like a grounded bird).
Don chan sawagi: A party animal.
Iki jibiki: A living dictionary or person who knows it all.
Kakusakon: Referring to yourself in jest if dating a richer partner.
Kenka suru no wa Naka no ii Shoko: Fighting is a sign of love!
Kudoki jouzu: You’re so skilled at flattery.
Hennachoko: Being just a small fry, said in a self-depricating way.
Muki muki: Ripped in a muscular way.
Saru mo ki kara ochiru: Said to console someone after a mistake. Means “even the monkeys fall from trees.”
Sousu gao: A guy with distinctive, foreign-looking features
If even a bit of more laughter erupts because of this book, the last two years writing it will have been worth it. Enjoy.
Pre-order on Amazon.jp or Amazon.com
