頭の回転が遅い[あたまのかいてんがおそい, atama no kaiten ga osoi] be slow; be slow on the uptake; be dull or dimwitted

This expression is quite similar to atama ga warui except in my opinion, it’s a bit more colorful.

kaiten is spinning or turning. And in the case of a dull person, it just doesn’t spin fast enough.

The reverse is also said of someone who is pretty sharp - in that case,

頭の回転が速い[あたまのかいてんがはやい, atama no kaiten ga hayai] be quick; be quick on the uptake; be sharp

Which have you heard said about you? Sharp as a tack or dumber than a box of rocks?

頭が悪い[あたまがわるい, atama ga warui] be dumb; be slow

Yup, the Japanese can insult with the best of them.

When a person just doesn’t get it, can’t figure it out, can’t be taught, or is just plain slow to come around..s/he is said to have a bad (warui) head.

It’s different in the west. When a person is said to have a bad head, it means they are intent on doing wrong. They are evil. They can, in fact, be very sharp, just on the wrong side of the law.

It might be more of a testimony to what I don’t know than what I do, but these ten expressions never made it into any conversation that I was a part of.

Does that mean they are not useful?

It meant that to me.

Have you ever heard them used?

Have you ever tried using them?

足がつく[あしがつく, ashi ga tsuku] leave tracks

足が遠退く[あしがとおのく, ashi ga toonoku] be far away; keep away; visit less often

足が速める[あしがはやめる, ashi ga hayameru] pick up the pace; walk faster

足でまとい[あしでまとい, ashi de matoi] a drag; a person who is a burden

足止めをする[あしどめをする, ashidome o suru] slow down; stop

足並みをそろえ[あしなみをそろえて, ashinami o soroete] cooperate

足元に付け込む[あしもとにつけこむ, ashimoto ni tsukekomu] have a person at a disadvantage

足元の明るいうちに[あしもとのあかるいうちに, ashimoto no akarui uchi ni] a thing should be done before it is too late

足を奪われる[あしをうばわれる, ashi o ubawareru] be deprived of

足を出す[あしをだす, ashi o dasu] reveal a secret; let the cat out of the bag

Off the top of my head, I can think of a few things we Americans say with our feet -

Costs an arm and a leg = way too expensive.

Have a leg up on someone = be ahead of someone else in ability.

Pulling my leg = teasing me.

He has one foot in the grave = really old, almost dead.

He will foot the bill = he will pay for us.

Can you think of others?

I ran a business, fought with the auditors from the Tokyo Tax Bureau (IRS-types) and taught Japanese people about Japan in Japanese among other things. I learned the language. Not perfectly, mind you, but more than enough to just get by.

Here at Japan-Hopper, I’d like to share some of the lessons I learned, on the street

You got to start somewhere, so I will begin with Japanese body language, from the feet up.

足が遅い[あしがおそい, ashi ga osoi] be slow; be a slow walker; be slow on one’s feet

Easy enough to grasp, ashi = leg or foot and osoi is to be slow.

One’s legs are slow.

My Japanese friends and the parents of other kids I met at school undou kais (athletic festivals) used to say this about me when I participated in running races.

“We don’t have much chance of winning this race. Not with that big fellow our team. He runs slower than molasses.”

“Yeah, but I’ll bet he’ll be useful in the tug-o-war.”

Sure enough. They would just pounded me in the ground and tie a rope around my waist. Sometimes, we even won.

In Eda-jinja Shrine,  November 21-22 2007

DARUMAYA serves set meal(teisyoku), noodles(udon and soba), rice bowl dishes(donburi), a la carte and coffee.

DARUMAYA is near Ryoanji, Myosinji, Ninnaji, Tojiin temple and Ritsumeikan, Hanazono university.

http://www.eonet.ne.jp/~darumaya-syokudo/en/

What do you think this is?
And who did this?

He, is the person who made this mark with his knife,
and his name is, Ryoma Sakamoto !

So now you see how treasurable it is.

This pillar is preserved and chereshed in Kagetsu, the most well-known and traditional Japanese Ryotei in Nagasaki, and is, historic site.

Ryotei is a Japanese style restaurant, sometimes with entertainments by Geisha, mostly traditional, and is the place for upper-class people’ business talk.

Now, I ‘d like to mention what is special about Nagasaki, since it’s deeply related here.

When Kagetsu opened in 1641, Japan was under the National Isolation Policy(1639-1854).
During that period, Nagasaki was the only port town, which kept (and dominated) trading with China and Holland.

Which means, Nagasaki enjoyed exceptional prosperity, and Nagasaki Geisha had the best Kimono, which you can see from some pictures in Kagetsu.

Ryoma Sakamoto was actually one of the frequent visitors of Kagetsu.

Dragon room (Ryoma’s `Ryo’ means Dragon) is the main room in Kagetsu.
It has beautiful view of the garden, especially in May, the season of azeria flowers.
It is designed in the way customers can enjoy the best view with sitting pose.

Other rooms are;

The only western room, with the design influenced by China.

Japanese room, very calming.

Also I should mention that King of Belgium, Norway, Sweden visited Kagetsu.

So, if you would like to spend luxurious time in Nagasaki, feeling history, Kagetsu is the best place to visit for lunch or dinner.
It’s close to the central town of Nagasaki (Oura Cathedral, Glover Garden, Peace Park, Ground Zero, museums…).

In case you need an escort, please contact me.

I have quite a few Japanese friends that try and teach me Japanese, and they do a fairly good job most of the time.

Anyway, many of the Japanese words that I have been learning have an English equivalent which makes it easy to understand how to use it.
However, there have been some words that I’ve learnt that are difficult to translate. Each of my friends seem to have a different English equivalent for these words or phrases and sometimes those definitions are quite different.

Example 1: Soro Soro

Let’s start with the phrase “Soro Soro”. As far as I know, this is said either before you leave or if you are planning to leave soon. The English equivalents that I can think of might be “ok, I have to go now”, or “I should get going” or “I have to go in a minute”.
Can somebody clear this up for me?
In English, you might say “I should be going soon” and then you would stay a little while longer before leaving.. If you say “Ok, I gotta go” then you would probably leave straight after that.
So, which one of these English phrases is closer in meaning to “Soro Soro”?

Example 2: Yabai

I know one definition of this, which is “It’s Risky”. However, my friends tell me that there are more meanings for this word, but they don’t know how to translate it into English.
I hear this word a lot on trains and just walking around Tokyo. A lot of Teenagers say it, so I guess it must be quite a multipurpose word.
It seems like a fairly trendy word to say, and it seems to stand alone.
One person will tell his friend something and the friend will sometimes say “Yabai!!”.
Could it mean…..”No Way” or “Oh My God!!”……however, I thought these phrases were covered by “Arie nai” ( I think I have the pronounciation wrong on that one )

Example 3: Yokatta

Ok. I’m completely stumped with this one. I hear it all the time, and I am guessing that this is another word with multiple meanings. However, I don’t know how to use it in my everyday Japanese. Is there a straight English interpretation of this, or is this one of those words that can’t quite fit into a neat and tidy English box.
It feels like “I Understand” or something like that…..but I am pretty much just guessing.
My friend’s have difficulty explaining this one too.

Example 4: Yappari

This one has me quite confused, but some people have told me that it kind fo means “after all” or something similar. Anyway, I invite people to give me some insight into this.
I’ve checked the dictionary on this word too, but it has given a few vague meanings and no examples.

Example 5: Maga Maga Shi ( The Challenge )

Nobody has even come close to giving me a definition for this. They just say “it’s difficult” and that’s that. Anyway, if somebody can point me in the right direction or give me a hint or something then that would be great. I first encountered this phrase in a manga comic…..if that’s any help.
Could this be like Sinister or Ominous?

Example 6: Yoroshiku ( Just one more )

ok, this one is not so hard, as I already use it sometimes, but I’ve heard it used by other people in a different context. If you guys could help me work out what the other meanings for this are, then I would really appreciate that.

Anyway, those are some of the words that I have come across that I really want to incorporate into my Japanese Vocabulary, but I am not quite sure how. I want to make sure that I have the correct meaning so that I don’t use in inappropriately.