Japanese Slang: With Karaoke Friends Like These...

One of the funner things to do in Japan is find a karaoke room and let loose. In America, my few karaoke experiences were open to the public (which was mostly hicks with handkerchiefs around their necks and other cowboy accouterments), so it's a very thankful thing to have just your buds with you when you belt one out. Today's slangy term is カラ友.

Karatomo Breakdown:

English gloss: karaoke friend
constructed from: kara+tomo
kara: from カラオケ (karaoke, which further breaks down to kara (empty) and oke (orchestra)
tomo: friend

Keep in mind karatomo could also mean "empty friend," but it doesn't ;-).
There is another couple of terms related to this. There is ヒトカラ (hitokara, going to karaoke not with friends, but hitori [alone]). There is also カラコン (karakon, a karaoke party). Do you recognize the kon part of that last term? It's related to a word I used last time, gōkon. Here is a karakon vid:


シャカリキボーイズ 投稿者 ROKUSASU0408

Yep it's the guys from yesterday. Here is another one (share my cheesy addiction):


[Japanese reference]

Japanese Slang: Ships in the Gōkon

Today's slangy term is こそアド

Breakdown:

English gloss: (noun) the secret exchanging of emails
assembled from: koso+ado
koso is from こっそり (kossori, stealthily)
ado is from メールアドレス (mēruadoresu, email)

So kosoado is exchanging phone emails on the sly. This usually happens at gōkon (singles mach-up parties), when you and your target have stolen away for a second of privacy. Another sound for stealth that also comes from kossori is こそこそ (kosokoso, the mimetic word for sneaking). It's a pretty humorous word to me, but then all gitaigo are.

Being a foreigner, I've never been invited to a gōkon myself. That would be a disaster: either everyone would focus on me and my amazing foreignness, or they would ignore me as they started talking fast, slangy Japanese and assumed I can't keep up. "No need for kosoado, the foreigner will never notice if we exchange mails right in front of him!"

So I bet you are wondering what a gōkon is. The following vid is an very accurate presentation of one. Only they exchange their mails openly.



And here is one with more party games:




[Japanese reference]

Fencing Vacuums Display

Occasionally, train stations have special promotions happening in them. I like my local station because lots of musicians come (both officially and unofficially). During the summer festival, a vitamin drink company gave out free bottles to whoever was willing to yell "Blastoff!" in Japanese.

This advertisement display with life-size mannequins was in Omiya station a while back:

Ad Breakdown:

Center of the ad:
kibikibi キビキビ energetic
keikai 軽快 light, nimble
saikyō 最強 strongest
pawā パワー power

And here is a TV CM to go with it:



Has anybody out there seen a really crazy promotion going on at a station in Japan?

I have Returned from the Mountain with Vids

So my mom and aunt both mailed me at the end of my vacation, saying, "Are you dead? You haven't been updating that blog thing. We like Jib though, it's easy to understand."

To the people that have a vested interest in whether or not my heart beats, I must remind you that I have a frequently updated twitter account.

Now then, here's a few vids related to the Ken Tanaka-led Youtube gathering in Tokyo the other week (my official one is yet to come though). In defense of my face, I was super sick at the time (I lost about 10 pounds). You would know that if you had been keeping up with my tweets about bowel movements. People want to read that.







I also make a tongue twisting appearance here!

Summer Break

Hey, not that anyone seems to have noticed (oddly enough, the more readers I get, the less comments I get too), but I'm on vacation right now, and a bit sick too. I'll be back in a fortnight. In the meantime, I may share some items through Google reader to keep some kind of content going on.

Oh and next Saturday, I may see Ken Tanaka! He's in town.
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Actually, my old boss did notice that I've been gone; she still visits my page!