A dialect or accent. The most famous dialect in Japan is Osaka-ben, the language of the second city. It tends to be a little rougher around the edges than standard speech. A typical greeting in Osaka-ben would be “Moukarimakka?” which means, “Makin’ any money?” The typical reply is, “Bochibochidenna,” which can be rendered as, “A little.” If you’re a foreigner with a good singing voice who’s about to sing karaoke somewhere in the north of Japan, use a trick from journalist Dan Sloan’s playbook and greet the audience with “Oban de gozaimasu,” which is “Good evening” in Tohoku-ben. It’s sure to get a warm reception.

Idiot! Along with just plain baka, it is probably the most common putdown in Japanese. Different Japanese-English dictionaries offer the following translations: asshead, asshole, dumb-ass, fool, goose, moron, old socks, simpleton and, from the fourth edition of Kenkyusha’s New Japanese-English Dictionary, you goddam simp!

A Bon festival dance. This festival is held every July or August for about a week to welcome back the souls of the dead. People dress in kimono and yukata. The dance is held outside at night. Despite being associated with the coming back of the dead, it is an upbeat, happy dance, and usually there is a carnival-like atmosphere with booths selling food and trinkets.

A form of modern dance begun in 1959. Dancers usually wear white makeup. The first butoh performance involved a dancer simulating sex with a live chicken and breaking its neck. Since then, butoh proponents seem to instinctively veer toward obtuse descriptions of their art – “the polymorphic body in a mysterious ceremony,” “Butoh is to become the other, not to mean the other,” or “It’s about the human experience” – as if the whole community is in denial about that chicken.