Kuhaku - Cletus' First Collegiate Dictionary of Japanese Chin Music

hikikomori

Refers to someone who stays in his or her home or room to an excessive degree. Similar in meaning to recluse. The word became popular in the late 1990s as some young people, mostly male, secluded themselves in their rooms and became modern-day hermits. While some journalists and doctors say as many as one million young people qualify as hikikomori, others argue that these estimates are inflated by people who have a vested interest in seeing the phenomenon flourish. Definitions of the term tend to be vague. For example, young people who aren�t going to school and don�t have a job sometimes refer to themselves as hikikomori even though they are not shutting themselves in their rooms. For those who are serious shut-ins, parents often leave food by the door and are reluctant to intervene with the child, doctors say. The worst of the cases lead to domestic violence, but more often, young people live quietly in their rooms, only coming out after dark, if at all.

arubaito

Part-time work. Comes from the German word for work, arbeit. We wonder if this makes Germans mad.

arigato gozaimasu

Thank you, polite form. Add dohmo to the front, and you have "thank you very much." In a more casual setting, you can say, "Dohmo arigato" (like in that Styx song), and among friends you can just say, "Dohmo." If you say, "Dohmo, dohmo," you will sound like a salaryman. And if you say, "Doomi arigati," you will sound like the mayor of Hayward, California, in 1986, as he addressed the student body at Ichiritsu Funabashi High School.

yuzu

The fruit of the citron tree, sometimes called a Chinese lemon.

yukata

A light cotton robe, usually worn in summer. Blue and white yukata are standard issue at Japanese inns and hot springs resorts. Make sure the right side of the robe goes on the outside (or was it the left side?), so you won�t be mistaken for a corpse. Also, if you are new to Japan and a neighbor presents you with a yukata and tells you that everyone will be wearing one at the bon-odori festivities that night, be warned: You are definitely being set up. In fact, you may be the only one wearing a yukata, with the exception of a few elderly ladies, and you may look and feel like an idiot. Also, because you don�t really know how to wear one of these robes, you may inadvertently show way more flesh than a Japanese would � if they actually wore these robes. However, one good thing will come of all this: That night will be seared onto your memory as if it happened yesterday, not in 1986.

yamanba

Witch woman. This term is applied derisively by the media to young women who sport artificial tans, dyed blonde hair, loose socks and lots of makeup. It's a term from a Japanese folk tale that describes an ogress who terrorizes villagers. Of course, the young women embrace the term, happy at the idea that they might actually scare their elders. The mecca for yamamba is Shibuya.

yakuza

yakiniku

Korean barbecue. Cook the thin slices of meat, tongue and vegetables at your table. And don�t forget the kimchi.

wa

Harmony, unity, concord. When the star pitcher of the Press Club Alley Cats in Tokyo defected in spring 2004 to a rival softball team, he told the manager that the Cats didn�t have wa anymore. Manager Patrick Killen later remarked, �I don�t remember anyone by that name.�

Uniqlo

A retail chain famous for low-priced fleece jackets and jeans. The clothes are produced in China. Several years ago, Uniqlo was the rising star of Japanese retail, and Tadashi Yanai, the company�s founder, was heralded as a visionary. In 2002, he ranked twelfth on the Asiaweek list of the top fifty powerful people in the region. �The bigger the casual brand market in a country, the more advanced the society is as a democracy,� Yanai said then. Lately, the brand has lost its luster.

toro

The fatty flesh of tuna. Often caught in nets off the coast of Chile, pulled aboard and spiked in the brain, then laid out on a grass mat or blanket so the two-hundred-kilogram fish won�t bruise. The bluefin is then refrigerated and flown to Tokyo. Once it arrives, the fish is lined up with its compatriots on the cold concrete at Tsukiji, the world�s largest fish market, at about three in the morning. Potential buyers begin to check the tuna around four. They use a flashlight and sharp little hooks to cut open the tuna near its tail and check the marbling and color of the flesh. Around half-past five, the auction begins. If the tuna is good quality, it will bring around ten-thousand yen a kilogram. Once the fish is bought, the buyers will paint a number or symbol on it and later cart it off to a restaurant or market.

torii

tetsugakuteki jisatsu

Philosophical suicide. Misao Fujimura, an eighteen-year-old student in Tokyo, left the first philosophical suicide note before killing himself at Kegon Falls in 1904. In his note, Fujimura passionately refuted the idea that modern Western science and rationalization, just then getting a firm foothold in Japan, could explain away all of life�s mystery.

tatemae

Sometimes called a fa�ade, an official stance, a policy. Also refers to a house�s frame. Contrasts with honne, one�s true intentions or beliefs.

tarento

Basically a tv personality, although definitions vary. If you�ve ever seen someone on tv a lot and wondered what that person really does for a living, he or she is probably a tarento. Westerners worthy of being called tarento include: Pia Zadora, the Osborne family and Ted Koppel.