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The introduction to this series of articles can be found here

DEFINITION: Runway (noun) A strip of land with a covered surface used by aeroplanes (US English = airplanes) for take off and landing; Futon (noun) A soft mattress used for sleeping on.

Runway futon (noun) A futon put down/laid out in a tiny area of hastily-cleared floor space in a messy one-room apartment.

EXAMPLE SENTENCE: “It’s about time I tidied up my apartment – I had to settle for the runway futon again last night”

EXPLANATION: One of the downsides of living in a one-room apartment is the lack of storage space, resulting in either a sparse, minimalist lifestyle or over-crowding and untidiness. In my case, I’m a bit of a ‘hoarder’ and rarely throw anything away (apart from rubbish/garbage of course).

This means that no matter how good my intentions are, or how many space-saving devices I buy from the ¥100 shop or home centre, my apartment is simply impossible to keep tidy. I start leaving things out on the carpet so I know where they are, these things keep accumulating, and before long there are piles of paper and junk all over the place. I’ve spoken to other people who live in one-room apartments and it seems this is a problem shared by many of them, especially since most people sleep on futons not beds.
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For me, one of the most interesting things about comparing different cultures is the variations in interpretation of the world around these groups of people that is evident in their languages. These interpretations offer insights not only into the local environment of a particular culture, but also (to varying degrees) a unique logic in assigning names to things and a reflection of the culture’s attitudes and values.

Even in similar or neighbouring cultures there are often radically different perceptions of the same things found in their lexicons, so comparing two culturally and historically disparate languages like English and Japanese - languages that evolved on islands located off opposite ends of the Eurasian landmass under the influence of very different continental languages and cultures - naturally yields some interesting differences.

In this series I’ll be analysing these differences between interpretations of the world around us found in English and Japanese and will add the links below when I post each part on Big On Japan.

• Part 1 - Cultural Significance in Numbers of Words
• Part 2 - Direct Translations and Word Associations
• Part 3 - Onomatopoeia
• Part 4 - English Around the World

Words and phrases I like to use in conversation

In this series I’m going to be introducing you to some of my favourite slang expressions, most of which are related to my life in Japan in one way or another. Some of these expressions I coined myself, some of them I stole from friends, while others are in common use in spoken English in England or elsewhere.

For each word or phrase I’ll be giving a definition, plus some background information such as notes on usage or origin, or further explanation of their meaning. As I write posts about each expression I’ll add the links to the list of slang at the bottom of this post.

Enjoy…

Your homework:

Do you know any other good slang (English or Japanese) you’d like to share?

Post your replies below, or email me at bigonjapan[at]gmail.com

My favourite slang list:

• crop dusting
• eigo bandit
• foreplay futon
• Flying While Gaijin (see ‘FWG’)
• FWG
• Gameboy dropper
• gutbuster
• hit up
• J-trash
• LBH
• lemmings
• Loser Back Home
• The Louis Vuitton Game
• mentalist
• naijin
• necking turds
• the overlap
• Pringles girl
• Riding While Gaijin (see ‘RWG’)
• runway futon
• RWG
• templed out
• tip whore
• turbo shandy
• turd necker (see ‘necking turds’)
• Washington