Japanese Language Trivia of the Day:

"She was looking back to see if I was looking back to see if she was looking back at me," is one of those cheesy things that my dad says from time to time... though I can't really remember why, or in what circumstances.

Today we're gonna talk about looking back:

見返り美人
みかえりびじん
mikaeribijin

見返る by itself, means to look back, and it can be used to mean looking back at one's life, or to look behind yourself. A 見返り美人 is not, as you might expect, a woman so beautiful that she's worth a second look. It's even better. It's a beautiful woman who's looking back at you.

Notes:

• The painting above (on the left) is an extremely famous Japanese work of art (considered an epitome of early ukiyo-e, by Hishikawa Moronobu); Something about the concept of the 見返り美人 seems to capture a very Japanese sense of beauty. It's coy, it's demure, and it's fleeting...
  
• 美人 is not necessarily gendered; it's cool to use this for a hot guy looking back at you as well.
• For some reason, lots and lots and lots of Japanese bloggers use this to tag pictures of their pets. Gotta love the blog-o-sphere.

八方美人

はっぽう　びじん
happou bijin

This one starts off seemingly obvious, with a reading that even those with a basic kanji level can ascertain. Eight directions, beautiful woman (or person). A quick side-note here to go along with my train of thought, how is that 四面 and 八方 can have the same meaning? Is there actually a tangible difference between things coming at you from eight sides instead of four? And four sides I can get - front, back, left and right, or even cardinal directions. But eight? Are they now filling the gaps of the secondary directions? Why not taking it another step and have it be the 16 directions? For those big into translation, I'd say "from all angles" would be a better interpretation. But I digress...(I think I just wanted to say that - thanks for indulging me, however involuntarily.)

Definition:
どこから見ても美しい人。転じて、誰にも悪く思われないように要領よくふるまうこと。また、そのような人。
Translation:
1. Someone who is beautiful from all angles.
2. To never say anything bad of other people, or someone who acts that way.
3. A sycophant

So unfortunately this does not mean that you have 8 beautiful women coming at you from different angles (thought Jeff "乱...何とか" Bailey will cover that in another post). Instead we have a barrage of meanings that slide the scale from compliment to insult, making this a tricky yoji to employ in everyday language. Jeff noted that he used it to describe somebody who was everybody's friend, but the person with whom he was talking said they would never want to be called a 八方美人. This is further complicated by the fact that the 四字熟語データバンク makes a special note indicating that the phrase is often used in a negative sense, but not always.

So here's a general guideline - if you are talking about a woman and use this phrase, it will most likely be interpreted in the good context, especially if used in a conversation involving appearance. If, however, you are talking about a guy, or about a woman's kindness, be wary - what was intended as a compliment can seem like an underhanded jab at their character. You might be able to preface its use with 本物の, but even that might come across as "He's a REAL brown-noser". Don't be afraid to clarify your meaning, as that will only go to show that, hey, you do actually know what you're talking about.

Today's example sentence is probably applicable to a lot of foreigners after they first come to Japan (especially those wearing the "looking for a Japanese girlfriend" t-shirt), and today's challenge will be for you to somehow translate the joke into English. Good luck!

例文：　A-san:　「僕初めて日本に来た時、八方美人ばっかり会ったよ。」
B-san:　「え？どーゆーことですか？おべっか使い人かきれいな女か、どちだった？」
A-san:　「どちも！」

百花繚乱

ひゃっか　りょうらん
hyakka ryouran

I'm making plans to head to Huis Ten Bosch, a re-creation of some major Dutch landmarks and a Dutch themed town, located in Sasebo, near Nagasaki. Huis Ten Bosch boasts great beer, outstanding chocolate, an M.C. Escher museum, and gardens that are renowned throughout all of Japan. Or... all of Kyushu at least. Advertisements actually bill Huis Ten Bosch as "the world's largest flower resort," and seeing as how they are currently featuring their ｢花の祝祭、」 I figured I could prepare by arming myself with this one, and arm you with a couple of flower themed phrases as well.

Definition:
種々の花が咲き乱れるように、優れた人物や業績が一時にたくさん現れること。
Translations:
1. A multitude of flowers blooming.
2. A sudden and varied flourishing of anything.
3. A gathering of a lot of beautiful women.
4. Simultaneous emergence of many talents and achievements.

This expression is used literally, with some regularity, even if it's mostly in the spring time but it's also used to talk about floral patterns in clothing or prints. And, as you can imagine from translations 2 and 4, it can also be applied to things like cultural renaissances or technological revolutions. Or you can use it as a metaphor about hot chicks. See if you can pick out which meaning is being used before clicking on the links below:

• 四季折々の百花繚乱
• 百花繚乱の画家たち
• プールサイド百花繚乱

Of course, Japan is not the only country to make the comparison between flowers and women, and this is by no means the only expression in which they do so. Tomorrow's trivia post will focus on some cool flower-related expressions and random words, but to tide you over until then, take this one today:

両手に花
りょうて　に　はな
ryou te ni hana

"A flower in each hand" is a girl on each arm, and it’s used regularly to describe men who are torn between two women (or who are simply dating two women); jokingly, to describe a married man with a wife and daughter; or most commonly, as revealed by Google Image Search, to cleverly caption personal photos that have two women in them.

Back with more flowers tomorrow!

例文(borrowed from the yoji databank)：
海外から大量にオンラインゲームが輸入され、日本市場ではまさに百花繚乱の激しい抗争が繰り広げられている。
The large, intial influx of foreign-produced online-gaming products, caused the blossoming of violent resistance in the Japanese market.