Japanese Word Thread

[Josiah]

hokkaido: Japan's northern most island, it's less densely populated and has a cooler climate than most of Japan and contains a lot of big national parks and nature preserves

[Josiah]

okinawa: a chain of islands off the southern tip of Japan, semi-tropical, originally their own kingdom but were conquered by Japan a few hundred years back.

[Josiah]

yama: mountain

[Josiah]

umi: ocean

[Josiah]

hakama: a type of traditional Japanese mens' pants, worn as part of a kendo outfit

[Josiah]

kendo: Japanese fencing (though the rules and fighting style are very different from European fencing)

[Josiah]

gakkou: school

[Josiah]

shougakkou: elementary school

[Josiah]

chuugakkou: junior highschool

[Josiah]

kako: highschool

[Josiah]

kurasu: class

[Josiah]

sensei: teacher (used as a title following the name of both actual teachers and highly respected people of other professions)

[Josiah]

kurabu: club (the kind you attend, not the kind you hit people with)

[Josiah]

buchou: president (a club or company president)

[Josiah]

so: a expression meaning something along the lines of "it is so", often used to show that you're paying attention when someone else is talking