“You say?” Apparently they do.

November 18, 2008 10:18 PM

It's not even Thanksgiving yet and already the 2008 "best of" lists have begun. Here's a list of the Top 60 popular Japanese words/phrases of 2008. "Morning banana" doesn't mean what you think it does. Is Sarah Palin an obaka-aidoru - おバカアイドル ? (via)
posted by tractorfeed (14 comments total)

THIS WEEK IN PEOPLE MAGAZINE, WE COUNT DOWN THE TOP 25 INTEGERS, AND YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHO'S NUMBER 18!

But really these are pretty interesting, and not the trite lolengrish things I was expecting (mostly).
posted by Damn That Television at 10:33 PM on November 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

Challenge: write a sentence using as many of these words/phrases as you can. Winner gets a morning banana. Yoshi, yoshi, yoooshi!
posted by cucumberfresh at 10:35 PM on November 18, 2008

It's fairly dense reading if you're not already familiar with the concepts mentioned or the culture it is based on, but interesting nevertheless.
posted by Phire at 11:34 PM on November 18, 2008

Morning Banana AskMeFi.
posted by roger ackroyd at 12:16 AM on November 19, 2008

Ah this is great - thanks!
posted by awfurby at 12:48 AM on November 19, 2008

Fun learning what's hip in Japan. Thanks. I love the Japangrish translations, like
Subprime = sabupuraimu. omg my inner 11 year old girly girl wants over-the-top Hime-den sculpture phones, ooh sparkles and fairy dust.

Morning Banana, huh, must be an Eastern relative of Afternoon Delight.

Adding to the Japanese words: Japanese Sound effects and what they mean
posted by nickyskye at 1:47 AM on November 19, 2008

Ahhhhhhhhhh! ponyo, ponyo ponyo, sakana no ko - ポ～ニョ、ポニョポニョ、さかなの子～

Too late it's stuck in my brain again....
posted by gomichild at 5:07 AM on November 19, 2008

nickyskye, the problem with hime-den phones is that the women who carry them have hime-tsume (my own word creation), or fingernails coated in many of the same sorts of things. I've seen women with flowers, ribbons, what have you, plastered to their fingernails, sometimes rising up to a quarter inch off the nail. I can't imagine how they would get anything out of the pocket of the incredibly tight jeans they wear. Nor can I imagine how they'd deal with one of those nasty, dried boogers you just gotta take care of digitally. Just terrifying.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:44 AM on November 19, 2008

What's the Japanese word for the newsless time of year when every other article published is just a list of tripe filed in September so the writers could take their holidays at the end of the year?
posted by pracowity at 6:37 AM on November 19, 2008

Very interesting—thanks for the post!
posted by languagehat at 6:39 AM on November 19, 2008

Thanks for the post, I really enjoyed this last year but had forgotten about it. Around number 50 I was wondering where 何も言えねー would show up, but Kitajima got his turn at 57.
As for Ponyo, I feel your pain, Gomichild. It's going to be a tough week or so for me and every around me, being forced to hear that song on repeat.
posted by Bun at 9:48 AM on November 19, 2008

Morning Banana made me laugh. really good post but I'm disappointed they didn't mention bukkake
posted by matteo at 10:53 AM on November 19, 2008

Stuff like this is appreciated. Thanks for sharing!
posted by defenestration at 1:19 PM on November 19, 2008

Pink Tentacle is awesome. Living in Japan, I know about a lot of these things--but for a lot only vaguely but because my Japanese is so crappy and I don't get all the nuances. Good list.
posted by zardoz at 7:13 PM on November 19, 2008