Japanese Language Trivia of the Day

As soon as I heard this at work today, I knew it had to go on this site. It's exactly the kind of language trivia that keeps me fascinated with Japanese, despite its unforgiving brutality.

(1級 studies are not progressing well)

狐の嫁入り
きつね　の　よめいり
kitsune no yomeiri

Fox wedding; sun-shower

Looking at both the literal translation and the application of this expression side by side, you can imagine how quickly I went running to the internet to find out what was up with this. I got all kinds of folklore-y goodness.

Turns out that this is, as Japanese wikipedia calls it, a "strangeness" of a tale that has been handed down since at least the beginning of the Edo Period (1603) and is known all over Japan, with the exceptions of Okinawa and Hokkaido, where marriage between foxes has yet to be legalized.


On certain nights, just before you fall asleep, you might see a procession of red glowing, flickering lights in the woods, a phenomenon called 狐火 in Japanese: "fox fire." Similar to what we call St. Elmo's fire, or will-o-the-wisp, it can usually only be seen from far away.

Japanese people used to say that the lights were made by a procession of 提灯 (hanging lanterns) carried by foxes on the way to a wedding (except in Tokushima-ken, where they figured the somber atmosphere was more likely that of a funeral procession).

There's even an actually recorded (which is not to say true) incident of a wedding during the Edo Period, in which a ferry-master was paid a large sum of money to commission and prepare numerous boats to ferry guests, procession style, over to the wedding. Everything went of without a hitch, but the next day, he found that all of the money he received had turned into leaves. People said that the wedding had been between the families of two Inari-shrines, famous for employing tricksy foxes as spirit-messengers.

So there's all that.

And then the connection to weather? Well, according to the folklore, strange weather heralds fox nuptials. Depending on the region, the exact kind of weather can be different (rainbows in Kumamoto, hail in Aichi), but raining while the sun's out is mostly widely accepted as the sign, hence the expression.

What I want to know is, if the foxes have to get married when the sun's out, what's the deal with the lantern processions at night?

Further Yo-ji Resources

Most of the time we try to do one of two things when posting yo-ji, hyougen. kotowaza, and other cool stuff:

1. We post something that we learned in conversation with Japanese people. We usually have a story to go along with it, might be able to relate it directly to our lives, we don't have to look up how to use it, and we can rest assured in the fact that it will be useful to us and to our readers because native-speakers use it.

2. We try to post something that lends itself to interesting cultural or historical content: a lot of times we'll look for phrases that are seasonally relevant, or have fascinating origins in Japanese (Chinese) history that will help us and our readers impress people with the range of our knowledge.

But sometimes we run dry, and we have to go yo-ji fishing. When that happens, here's what we use, and now with a little cash and some Amazon.co.jp, you can use them too.

「四字熟語」これだけ辞典
The Yojijukugo "All you need" Encylopedia
published by Escargot Books



This is something I inherited from 大づの先生, the most senior 国語先生 at Kawasoe-Chuugakko. My copy still has his name written down the spine. Sometimes I think he gave it to me so I'd stop asking him what stuff meant all the time. As you can see, it's very, very dense, but all-encompassing, with over 1700 四字熟語 and their definitions contained in its pages. Does not feature example sentences.

小学四字熟語ことわざ慣用句問題集
Grade School level: Commonly Used Yojijukugo and Proverb Workbook
published by さし書房


　 　 　
I lost the cover to my copy a while ago. This was the first yo-ji book I ever bought, and is still the easiest to use. The Japanese is easy to understand. The definitions are illustrated with pictures that... I guess they could be clearer, but they could also be more obscure. Also doesn't feature example sentences, but it does have quizzes where you have to choose the right saying for the situation or match the definition, etc. Pretty useful.

ことわざ・四字熟語に強くなる！
Increase Your Proverb and Yojijukugo Power!
published by 世界文化社



My yo-ji mentor, Otao-san, uses this book. It's like the Japanese equivalent of a book containing anecdotes or jokes or techniques or quotations to be used in speeches. It contains in-depth explanations of thousands of phrases, examples of the 使い方 for many of them, and is organized into sections based on theme: "Proverbs related to success," "Proverbs for when you're lost," "Yo-ji related to society and nature," and the very broad "Yo-ji related to life" (to name a few). It also has a running sidebar that's like a "On This Day in Japanese History," section. I haven't really looked at that much. Lot of people's names, written in kanji.

教科書によくでる四字熟語2009カレンダー
Textbook Yojijukugo 2009 Wall Calendar
published by 旺文社




Last but not least, I got this calendar as a house-warming present from the very same Otao-san. I find it extremely comforting because it only features three yo-ji a week, and if a Japanese publishing company can't put out more than that, The Daily Yo-ji's not doing so bad after all. It's designed so that elementary school students can also use it (all kanji glossed), which makes it easy to use in the bathroom where, unless you're Brett, you probably don't bring your electronics with you. And yes, I was given explicit instructions to hang it in my bathroom. When I laughingly promised to comply saying, 「毎日読まれるようにね,」 Otao-san corrected me by saying, 「毎日より、毎回！」

表現 Break: 猫被り

If ever there was a 諺 to keep out of a google image search bar, this one is it.

猫被り 　・　 猫を被る
ねこかぶり　・　ねこをかぶる
neko kaburi　・　neko wo kaburu

Definition:
猫のようにうわべだけ柔和にして、内心は貪欲だったり陰険だったりすること。
Translation:
Literal: Wearing a cat.
1. Wolf in sheep's clothing.
2. Feigned naivete.
3. Pretending to be innocent to lure someone in.

Origins for this one are pretty standard. Felines are pretty universally accepted as being kind, when it suits their purposes, and being a generally manipulative animal.

If you like cats, (and NOT in the way that a certain sect of Japanese オタク likes cats: there are CAT maid cafes!), then check out this site, which lists pretty much every Japanese 諺 where cats make an appearance.

And since we're discussing 猫被り, I'd like to raise a point for discussion: Is 猫被り a trait that is considered desirable in a Japanese woman? Culturally, I mean.


(These are some of Yuri's friends. They made this video as humorous presentation for their friend's wedding. We've seen lots of these (they're a common practice) and trust me, in terms of the choreography and production quality, this is on the high end of the scale.)


Back to the matter at hand, according to "Pink Samurai," which is a non-fiction book, not a smutty manga, thank you very much, Japanese males are attracted to the ingenue more than the experienced woman, which explains the obsession with underage girls. The book even analyzes the number of occurences of the phrase 「優しくしてね,」 in personal ads for girls who work in the ヘルス massage industry as a kind of 猫被り, analogous to a western pro saying "Be gentle," with the pretext of inexperience implied.

On a personal level, Brett and I have witnessed a couple of examples of conversations where Japanese girls have claimed to not understand a patently obvious joke about things of a sexual nature. One even claimed to not be able to imagine how the person in this picture (who shall remain nameless) kind of looks like he's violating the karaoke tv.

A Japanese woman whose opinions I value told me that Japanese women do pretend to "not get it," at least in front of other men.
I'd love to hear what Japanese people, or non-Japanese women (koff koff Cassie) who have lived in Japan have to say. I know the foreign female Japan experience and the foreign male Japan experience are very different, and I wonder what kinds of insights my gender might not be privy to.

In the meantime, I think that 猫被り is a good opportunity to revisit some earlier posts and make some clarifications:

• 猫を被ること would go well with the idea of 海千山千: someone who looks like a kindly, wise, Dragonheart-dragon might actually turn out to be a wicked, ravenous, Reign of Fire-dragon.
• 猫を被ること would NOT go well with 衣ばかりで和尚はできぬ, which is more often used to mean "You can't become a monk just by getting the robes," than it is to mean "Appearances can be deceiving."

例文：日刊四字というサイトはちょっと猫被りしていないのかな？女性の意見を積極的に聞き出しているようですが、それは本当かな？実はよくスケベな写真を乗せたり、ブレットが女性差別のことを書いたりしているでしょう。前回のナンパの投稿を見ましたか？怪しい！今回、女の人を参加させようとするけど、本当は女の人の「意見」には興味ないのかな？
That Daily Yoji site is a wolf in sheep's clothing, don't you think? Oh sure, they'll ask for female "input" all nice and polite, but is it for real? The truth is, they're always posting dirty pictures, and Brett's writes sexist comments... And did you see those nanpa posts? Suspect! Sure, this time they're trying to get women involved, but somehow I doubt that it's a woman's "opinion" that they're interested in.

表現Break: 蚤の金玉

This is a funny little phrase I picked up in Kagawa-ken when I was on my hitch-hiking trip, and it must've been a personal favorite of the man I heard it from, because he used it more than ten times.

蚤の金玉
のみ　の　きんたま
nomi no kintama

蚤 is a flea and 金玉... well, 金玉 are the family jewels. It's not an エッチ enough word that it would make the cut for The Nightly Yoji; It gets used a lot, even in mixed company. I attribute it to the Japanese cultural tendency to not think twice about discussing bodily functions, bowel movements, and private parts more casually than some other cultures might.

蚤の金玉 are just what you think they are: a flea's balls.

I found a definition online that says this: 取るに足らな いごく小さなものの喩え: a simile used to describe something that's too small to pick up... but that's using a very narrow definition of 取る. It can also mean to earn, to steal, to take, to eat, or to harvest. 蚤の金玉 can be defined simply as something insignificant, something below the radar.

The guy I learned it from liked to use it to talk about people who were nitpickers, cheap, or anal retentive. ｢蚤の金玉より小さい事を気にする野郎。」 I've been able to use it successfully in situations where people have tried to pay me back the 50, 20, 0r even 10円 they borrowed from me.

My favorite thing about learning this one, however, was the wealth of expressions I discovered that mean almost the same thing. Some of these are hilarious:

1. 蛙(カエル）のションベン: frog piss.
2. 蟻(アリ）のオチンチンan ant's wang.
3. 烏賊(イカ）の金玉: squid nuts.
4. 隠した鷹の爪(タカのつめ）: the falcon's hidden toenail
5. 雀の涙（すずめのなみだ）: a sparrow's tear (used like we would say "just a drop in the bucket")
6. 蝉(セミ)のションベン: cicada piss.
7. イタチの最後屁（さいごへ）: a weasel's fart (this one had a footnote: "something that can be sensed by smell, but not seen")

Note: Apparently, in some regions of America (koffkoff those where my dad grew up koff), there's an expression that works the same way. It's "Picking fly shit out of pepper."

Any other equivalent phrases out there?

表現 Break: 三日三月三年

みっか　みつき　さんねん
mikka mitsuki sannen

(This can be alternatively written/pronounced as:
三日三ヶ月三年
みっか　みかげつ　さんねん
mikka mikagetsu sannen

Three is an important number in the Japanese collective consciousness. Oh you'll hear a lot about numbers like 4 and 9 as harbingers of suffering and death, or 8s representing bounty... but 3s are where it's at in terms of demonstrating resolve.

What do I mean by this? Let's take a look at some Japanese expressions and Japanese cultural practices that all involve threes.

Three is the magic number for gift giving at weddings: 30000円 is the traditional amount for a present, and if you choose to give gifts like dinner ware, or bath towels, or anything domestic, you should always give them in groups of odd numbers, like 3 or 5, with 3 being the standard. While I imagine that in the states, couples gifts in groups of 2, or even family starter gifts in groups of 4. In Japan, however, the idea is that even numbers can be evenly divided and are not appropriate for weddings, which should be about lasting bonds. A group of three (man, woman, and child perhaps?) can not part ways so easily.

And there's another marriage tradition with threes that I learned about recently. It's common, still today, for a suitor to be turned down by the bride's father three times before receiving consent.

This ties in with the general idea that Japanese people will say "No" thrice before accepting things. When you offer to pay for a meal, (or even just for your portion of a meal) Japanese people will often refuse. If you do want to pay, try offering more than four times. They might just be being polite.

On the same theme of persistence, remember 三日坊主? Three days is the make or break point. Someone who's sticking with it after three days is probably not going to give up.

So take the 三日 from 三日坊主, as the period required to see what a trade, hobby, or regular practice requires, and we can start to work on the meaning of today's phrase.

Definition:
Watch for three days, learn for three months, practice for three years.

Sorry for the lack of a definition in Japanese, but definitions seem to vary. A man who gave me a lift through Shimane-ken explained that this was the way that you become an expert at something, the way you make it your own.

Some sources on the web equate this expression to the　ことわざ 「石の上にも三年」, which involves enduring boredom and suffering to achieve greater results. Notice how that takes three years too?

Do you know any other Japanese expressions or customs involving threes?

表現 Break: 夏風邪は馬鹿が引く

なつ　かぜ　は　ばか　が　ひく
natsu kaze wa baka ga hiku

Short and sweet post today. Know anybody with a cold or do you have one yourself?

I got a little bit sick and started to hear this one from close friends. Make sure you use it with people who know that you're only teasing, because here's what it means:

Definition:
誤解から、一般に、夏風邪を引く者は愚か者であるということ。
Translation:
Literal - Idiots catch cold in the summer
1. Only a fool...

On a short cultural note, I thought I'd bring up a point that I will argue endlessly with Japanese people. I'm curious to know what all y'all think.

How much of a factor does temperature play in catching a cold?

Are you more likely to catch cold if the air conditioner is on?

Do you believe it's possible to get sick BECAUSE of air conditioning?

I always believed that colds are caused by germs, and nothing else. While cold temperatures might lower your body's resistance and make it easier to catch a cold, I refuse to believe that you're going to get sick just because the air conditioner is running. I can also understand that Japanese air conditioning systems dry the air out, which can cause your lungs, throat, and nasal cavity to get all 風邪気味.

However, the Japanese belief that air conditioning is a direct cause of sickness is a little bit too close to the Korean belief in fan death...

What do you think?

表現 Break: 隣の芝が青く見える

となり　の　しば　が　あおく　みえる
tonari no shiba ga aoku mieru

I'm officially out of my old house (no more moving gripes mixed in with the yojis) and crashing at Brett's apartment for a few weeks. I can't promise that this means I'll be more productive because, as I've realized, my ability to write the yoji with regularity was largely related to the fact that I had a job, or, that is to say, on the the fact that I was obligated to sit at a desk for long periods of empty, empty time. Now that I'm out, even when I'm not busy, I have a million other things that I can do. Walk around Saga Castle, play Smash Brothers, go swimming, boost my ego by walking through crowds of JK at Youme Town (a mall chain in Japan) and draw pitying looks from my girlfriend, who knows exactly how NOT カッコいい I am.

Sounds nice, right? But then, I'm not getting as much studying done as I used to. Maybe I was better off working at Kawa Chuu after all?

Just kidding. I just wanted a way to segue into today's ことわざ.

Definition:
自分の手に持っているものより、他の人が持っているもの方がよく見えること。また、以前持っていたもの方がよかったと思っている場合もある。
Translation:
Literal - The neighbor's lawn looks bluer (greener).
1. The grass is always greener on the other side.

Good one to know, as apparently, it expresses a universal tenet, true of humanity no matter where you go.

Also good to know that even though 緑 (みどり; midori) means green in Japanese, in a lot of instances (traffic lights and newbies for example) are referred to as 青い (あおい；aoi), blue. This is not because of a different concept of color categorization, but actually because of a linguistic phenomenon common in a number of languages that aren't English, one that has no real bearing on today's post but is fascinating, so I will link it here: grue.

Again, in the spirit of trying to be nice to you guys, this expression is used commonly and will be instantly recognized, requiring no long-winded explanation on your part (which, I usually screw up so badly that any hopes of being perceived as knowledgeable in the ways of 日本語 go right out the window).

Lemme know if you find any situations to try it out in!

例文：
A-san: 大学生時代のことを思い出すと、楽しかったと思います。毎日パーティ、ナンパばっかり、ドンだけ飲んでも、2日よいにならなかった。今の社会人の生活と比べたら、｢良かったなー｣と思います。
Thinking back on my old college days... man, that was fun. Partying all the time, hitting on all the girls in sight, and no matter how much I drank, I NEVER seemed to get hungover. Comparing that to my life as a working man... I can't help but think how much better it was then.
B-san: だが、現実的に思い出せば、当時はきつかったよ！毎日カップラーメンをくい、お金ぜんぜんない、周りの人にタバコを借りないと吸えない、週二回ぐらい、母親にお金のことでおこられ。。。大変だった。お前、今の楽な生活の方がいいじゃないか。「隣の芝が青く見える」ってことでしょう。
But if you remember it realistically, it was pretty rough! Eating instant ramen every day, having no money at all, if you didn't borrow a cigarette you couldn't smoke, and your mom was on your case about money like twice a week! It was terrible! Isn't your comfortable life now better than that? Sounds like a case of "The grass is always greener..." to me.

単刀直入

たんとう　ちょくにゅう
tantou chokunyuu

While one of the concerns of this blog is finding obscure yoji that will wow onlookers and require a bit of reading into Chinese history, we also realize that sometimes you just want the yoji without all the smoke and mirrors. In that situation, this is the yoji for you.

Definition:
前置きや挨拶を抜きにして、直接本題に入り、核心をつくこと。
Translations:
1. Cutting to the chase
2. To speak clearly and frankly
3. Get to the point

To 単刀直入, the origin of the phrase is revealed in the breakdown of the kanji. You just grab a single sword and charge the enemy, because really, what else is there to discuss?
One would do well to note that one should be careful when using it with superiors. That's not to say that you can't use it at all, but that when using it you have to deploy it with all the 敬語 trimmings if you don't want to seem like a disrespectful, ungrateful oaf. The best use, perhaps, is in preceding a plain-spoken point you're preparing to make to a friend that might come off as unnecessarily brusque otherwise. That can be useful in a second language since you're not always able to garnish dialogue with all the nuances you would otherwise employ, and throwing out a 単刀直入 can make that lack of filler seem more intentional, and thus AWESOME.


Bonus 表現：遠回しな言い方

Since I'm honestly a little conflicted about lingering on about a phrase that expressly demands I do the opposite, it might be appropriate to arm you with the other side of this idea: 遠回し(toomawashi). The meaning of this one? You guessed it - beating around the bush, or approaching something in an indirect manner. The expression listed above is a little rough to fit into conversation, so try 遠回しに, as in 「遠回しに言うな、お前！」, or...

例文: 「教頭先生はいつも僕に遠回しに喋ってくるんだよ。彼は単刀直入に話してもらう方がいい...」
The vice principal is always speaking to me in this round-about way. It would be better if he could just get to the point.

See what I did there?

表現 Break: 船頭多くして船山に上る

せんどう　おおく　して　ふね　やま　に　のぼる
sendou ooku shite fune yama ni noboru

This one is fun to discuss with Japanese people because even though our metaphors are wildly different, we have the same expression in English.

Definition:
口出しする者が多いと、物事がとんでもない方向にすすむ。
Translation:
Literal - Too many boatmen will bring a boat up a mountain.
1. Too many cooks in the kitchen will spoil the soup.

例文：友達たちと皆で自分たちのビジネスを始めることは楽しいイメージがする、けど、現実的に考えれば、やはり、一人の方が楽だ。船頭多くして船山に上るから。
Starting a business with all of your friends sounds like a fun idea, but when you think about it realistically, doing it on your own is more comfortable. Having too many cooks in the kitchen cause problems, after all.

表現 Break: 売る言葉に買う言葉

うる　ことぼ　に　かう　ことば
uru kotoba ni kau kotoba

The great thing about being a foreigner living in Japan is that every interaction is an opportunity to learn something new, even when you're having an argument. Argument is a relative term of course; in America an argument with my ex-girlfriend meant raised voices, and maybe a slammed door or two, followed by extend periods of passive-aggressive behavior. In Japan, I've learned to think of arguments as long, low-key, strained conversations followed by extended periods of passive-aggressive behavior. Who's to say which country does it right?

This expression, which I learned after a long, LONG conversation with my landlord about what to do about all of the furniture that someone has to clear out of my house (he wants me to pay to have it removed and disposed of; I think I shouldn't be responsible for anything that was already there when I moved in), and I'm glad I learned it in that context, because otherwise, I never would've been able to extrapolate the meaning.

I mean, think about it: 売る言葉に買う言葉 (also sometimes expressed as 売り言葉に買い言葉). What does it mean? "Selling words to buying words."

In the context of a conversation, if one person is talking sales and the other is talking purchases, it sounds to me like you've got a transaction on your hands. Everybody's happy, right?

Not so.

Definition:
相手の暴言に対し、こちらも負けず劣らずひどい暴言で返すこと。
Translations:
1. Trading barbs.
2. A bitter back and forth
3. A heated exchange of well-chosen words

Think of the argument as a matter of trade, with both participants engaging in a fair exchange. If one person makes a snide comment, the other person comes back with something equally snide, equally appropriate, and the argument escalates. This would be a good phrase to use when describing a marital squabble or a quarrel between two people who are very well known to each other. The way that 売る言葉 are perfectly tailored to respond to 買う言葉, fits in perfectly with the idea of two people who know exactly how to push each other's buttons.

Online definitions say that an 売り言葉に買い言葉 situation is often described as 喧嘩のタネ: the seeds of a quarrel or a fight.



例文：売り言葉で買い言葉から殴り合いになったみたいだ。
Seems like there was a heated exchange of words that escalated into a brawl.

表現 Break: 鼻の下が伸びている(伸ばしている）

はな　の　した　が　のびている (のばしている）
hana no shita ga nobiteiru (nobashiteiru)

To ease your transition into non-flower expressions, let's go with one that uses the other はな: nose.

Some might argue that this expression could have been saved for the eventual unveiling of the project Brett and I are always talking about, 「The Daily Yoji: After Dark」, which would be just like this site, except... not safe for work. But since it's pretty tame (when compared to some of the expressions, vocabulary, and ... onomatopoeia that we'd post on a NSFW site) and I've had three chances to use it since I learned it last week, I figured maybe we could throw it out there and test the waters a little bit. :)

Definition:
可愛い女の子を見たときやエッチな場面に遭遇したときに言われることです。
Translation:
That bit under your nose is getting longer.

｢伸ばす」and ｢伸びる」 can be used interchangeably here.

This is a hard one to define and translate for two reasons.
1: It's such a common place phrase in Japanese that looking it up, even in conjunction with 由来 or 意味 yields so many search results that digging through them to find useful ones is ridiculous.
2. We don't have a roughly equivalent expression in English.



This is said to somebody or about somebody who is leering, or engaging in lecherous fantasizing. If you come across something that's エッチ, and your reaction could be construed as interest, that bit under your nose is getting longer. If you're having a conversation about sex and you get... distracted, that bit under your nose gets longer.

I suppose that in the case of staring, something like "Pick your jaw up off the floor," or "Your eyes are about to come out of your head," would be appropriate. And then, ｢鼻の下が伸びている」 might be a Japanese woman's version of "Hey! My eyes are up here." But most of the incidences of use that I've come across in my long, below-the-nose growing career are jocular. If it's being said, it's probably being said in good humor. ｢鼻の下が長いお爺さん」 sounds much more friendly and familiar than ｢変態じじ」 for sure.

This one is probably also familiar to fans of manga and anime, because there's a visual convention for it as well. In drawings, artists will usually do two things to characters who are having すけべな thoughts: They will elongate the portion of the upper lip, just below the nose, and they will give the character a sudden nose bleed. Yes, sexual thoughts cause nose bleeds.

And I've never seen this one in comics but I found it out the hard way by spending almost a year explaining to people that my hair grows really fast. Fast growing hair is another sure sign of a horndog.

表現 Break: 渡る世間に鬼はない

わたる　せけん　に　おに　は　ない
wataru seken ni oni wa nai

Today, a Japanese expression that would have Thomas Hobbes rolling in his grave. Whereas he assumed that life in the state of nature would be "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short" due to the fundamental selfishness and evil of individual human beings, the Japanese came up with a more positive outlook.

Definition:
世間には鬼のように冷たい人ばかりでなく、心が温かくて親切な人もいること.
Translations:
Literal - There are no demons in this world
1. Not everyone is bad at heart.
2. People are basically good natured.
3. There is kindness to be found everywhere.

Of course, not all Japanese people think this way, as might be evidenced by the popular "ime-ji" of foreign countries as places of extreme danger. In fact, there is a long running Japanese TV drama that named itself after an alternate version of this phrase: 渡る世間には鬼ばかり.

And in case you ever get into a conversation about it, let's arm you with one of this phrase's opposites as well:

寺の隣にも鬼が住む
てらのとなりにもおにがすむ
tera no tonari ni mo oni ga sumu

Demons can live anywhere, even next to the temple.

Important note:
Don't be surprised if Japanese people are MORE familiar with the revised version that came from the drama... 渡る世間に鬼はない is an old expression, and young folks today are less inclined to assume the best of people.

Let's have some fun with today's example conversation、and revisit some old examples to see some alternate (better) uses.

例文：　
A-san: あの人が喋ると、ただ美辞麗句を並べているように聞こえない？なんか、きれいな言葉ばかりで、あまり意味がないよね。
When that guy talks, doesn't it seem like he's just blowing smoke in our faces? He says a lot of pretty things, but there's never any substance.
B-san:　そうよね。口がうまい、あいつ。彼は海千山千の代表じゃない？ああいうタイプには用心するけどね。
Yeah, right? Quite the bullshitter, that SOB. He's the epitome of a sly, old fox. If I were you, I'd be extra-cautious.
C-san:　でも、渡る世間には鬼はないから、もしかして彼の言っているのは純粋なのか？
But, there's good in everybody, you know? What if he's sincere in what he's saying?
D-san:　だが、衣ばかりで和尚はできぬ。それに、寺の隣にも鬼が住む。和尚の格好をつけている鬼でいる可能性もある。
Yeah, well wearing a robe doesn't make him a priest. And on top of that, demons lurk everywhere, even next to temples. What if he's a devil in priest's clothing?
Clay-san:　つまり「鬼と和尚は 表裏一体」とよく言われることだ。
After all, they say "Devils and priest are two sides of the same coin..."
Clay-sanの元彼女：　何それ！勝手に自分のことわざ作らないでよ！
What are you talking about? Stop making up your own expressions!

表現 Break: 衣ばかりで和尚はできぬ

ころも　ばかり　で　おしょう　は　できぬ
koromo bakari de oshou ha dekinu

Get ready for a link festival!

Today's expression is an old one; you can tell by the way they turn できない into できぬ, an archaic form of negation which only survives today in these kinds of expressions (we covered this when we talked about how Japanese people treat cuckoos).

I found this one when I took another look at the site where I got the picture for 十人十色.　

日本のことわざ In English is a great page, and I've added it to the links bar on the left. While its English translations aren't always perfect, the accompanying artwork is engaging, colorful, laugh-out-loud bizarre, and sometimes downright scary. Check the picture for "Well-clothed and fed is well mannered." WTF?

Other than "Ten people, ten colors," you can see their versions of some of our posts, like 猿も木から落ちる、which has a great picture or 七転八起 or 悪事千里 from WAY back when The Daily Yoji was still on it's second post.

Now on to today's expression:

Definition:
うわべだけ綺麗に着飾っても実力が伴ってなければだめの意。
Translations:
Literal - A robe alone does not a buddhist priest make (A hood does not make a monk).
1. The clothes don't make the man.
2. Appearances can be deceiving.
3. A monkey with rings on his fingers is not necessarily a king (Bulgarian proverb, according to my crazy friend Emo).
4. Sticking feathers up your butt don't make you a chicken.

I purposely left off "Don't judge a book by its cover," because this one seems to be designed more to warn the naive about those who affect an appearance without having the substance or to admonish those types directly.

"Book by its cover" always sounded like it had a more positive connotation to me, where the interior had a chance of being more valuable than the exterior led one to believe. This is not the case here.


例文：男となったら、「衣ばかりで和尚はできぬ」と覚えておいた方がいい。ほしいものを手に入れるために、好きなフリする男だって多いし。
When it comes to men, you should remember that appearances can be deceiving. There are lots of men out there who will act like they like you until they get what they want.

Japanese Language Trivia of the Day

虫のマーチ! June is the first month the weather gets humid enough to prompt the return of Japan's torrent of enormous bugs. As such, what better time to be armed with a comparable barrage of 虫-based phrases?

虫眼鏡
むし　めがね
mushi megane

Literal meaning: Bug glasses.
Translation: Magnifying glass.






虫干し
むし　ぼし
mushi boshi

Literal meaning: 干し means to dry out via heat, whether it be by the sun or a fire. So this one is "dry out the bugs"
Translation: Airing out, or to air out, ie what people do to their futons in the spring time.




虫歯
むし　ば
mushi ba

Literal meaning: Bug tooth
Translation: Rotten/bad tooth.

虫酸が走る
むしず　が　はしる
mushizu ga hashiru
Literal meaning: The bug-acid runs.
Translation: Disgusting




虫の居所が悪い
むし　の　いどころ　が　わるい
mushi no idokoro ga warui

Literal meaning: The bug's location is bad.
Translation: To be in a bad mood.









弱虫
よわ　むし
yowa mushi

Literal meaning: Weak bug
Translation: Coward












泣き虫
なき　むし
naki mushi

Literal Meaning: Cry bug
Translation: Crybaby











虫の知らせ
むし　の　しらせ
mushi no shirase

Literal meaning: Bug's news.
Translation: A premonition, to have a feeling about something.

Now that you know all these awesome bug phrases, beware - there are a few well-known Japanese phrases that begin with "mushi", but it's not the same kanji. For example:

蒸し暑い
むし　あつい
mushi atsui

Meaning: humid and hot, with pretty much the same translation

無視する
むし　する
mushi suru

Meaning - To ignore, disregard, or neglect.


There are a whole lot of other ones, so if you're uncertain, look it up or ask.