以心伝心

いしんでんしん
ishin denshin

I was reminded of this one again recently by an eikaiwa student I inherited from Jeff, and kind of just nodded along when it was explained since I've heard it used to many times before. I believe I've heard it before as an explanation for how Japanese people sometimes seem to be able to communicate so much to oneanother when so little is said, and thus why it can be difficult for an outsider to gain complete understanding. Being here for just 2 years has mostly refuted that idea in my mind, though I would say the phrase is still an apt for couples, close friends, and...well...the list goes on.

Definition:
仏教用語で、言葉や文字で表現することが難しい仏法の真髄を師から弟子の心に伝えること。主に禅宗で用いる。転じて、言葉や文字を使わなくても、お互いの意志が通じること。
Translation:
1. Telepathy.
2. Communicating tacitly.
3. Understanding what somebody is thinking without prompting or words.

There are probably a hundred more ways for me to define this expression, but they're all tantamount to the same thing. It applies splendidly to all the moments where, without any prompting, you wonder aloud, "what was that one thing..." or "who was that one guy...", and your friend immediately gives the answer. CREEPY STUFF.

Ex.　一番グループは絶対以心伝心と言える親友だ。何も言わなくても、お互いの考え方を分かりすぎる。

PS. I promise the next one won't be about ichiban group. For serious.

暴飲暴食 ・ 鯨飲馬食

ぼういんぼうしょく　・　げいいんばしょく
bouinboushoku ・ geiinbashoku

It's been a long time since I did a yoji and though I actually have a few stored away for the future (Read: Friday, if things go swimmingly), I was at school and didn't have by little stash at my fingertips. So I do what any good yoji-editor does and started groping blindly for a topic by hassling Tina, our resident CIR, ie the person who gets the same salary for doing nothing. She popped out a few that the Yoji has, to my joy, already covered...but also the second of the little gems above. The first one I knew from a long time ago, a yoji that would go on to inspire our third or fourth Ichiban Group t-shirts. Needless to say, these yoji have a special place in my heart, and are even better since they contribute the trend of looking for idioms that apply to the editors.

鯨飲馬食
Definition:
酒を飲む勢いは鯨が海水を吸い込むようであり、物を食べるさまは馬が草をはむようであるという意。
Translation:
1. Drink like a whale, eat like a horse.
















暴飲暴食
Definition:
度を超して大量に飲んだり食べたりすること。
Translation:
1. Excessive eating and drinking
2. Debauching
Make sure to click on the picture for the full-sized version: those shirts are important to the theme of this post.

This is a particularly good post with both Jeff's birthday and Nirav's one year "I'm leaving Japan" anniversary coming up. As with all the great things, Jeff and Nirav's influence on my life here is only understood in their absence. I remember 暴飲暴食ing and rampant hijinks. 応援団, beech parties, a Japanese superbowl as well as a Fourth of July, and a trip to the Asahi beer factory that was meant to be the first stop of the entire Japanese brewery circuit. What happened that made us rethink the other breweries? 鯨飲馬食.

Ex. 　このごろ僕は何事もほどほどに生活してる。でもそれよりもニラブとジェフと一緒に暴飲暴食すること良かったものだ。早く日本に戻ってお前ら！