Japanese Slang

* Bonsai -- no connection with dwarf pines, this means a motorcycle or a car festooned with accessories or ornamentation.

* Chinsodan -- an alternate word for bosozoku (hot-rod gangs). Literally means "weird running group," and serves as a putdown, since many young people regard the term bosozoku ("violent running tribe") in a positive light.

* Dentotsu -- an abbreviation of denwa totsugeki shuzai -- to attack by telephone. This means to inundate a company or organization by telephone with complaints or requests for information.

* DQN -- pronounced "do-kyun." It's an abbreviation of mokugeki dokyun. Used when a bad guy makes the scene, as in "Uh-oh, here comes trouble!"

* Hesoten -- laid-back, secure, happy. Literally means sprawled on one's back with one's belly-button pointing skyward.

* Haniwa rukku -- High-school girls, particularly in northeast Japan, have taken to wearing sweat pants under their short uniform skirts to discourage the ubiquitous camera peepers. By so doing, they resemble the garments on haniwa, the clay figures placed around prehistoric grave mounds.

* Nichannera -- someone who frequently puts posts on "Ni-channel," one of Japan's most popular blogs.

* Nonai kanojo -- literally "brain-inside girlfriend." It means the girl of one's fantasies -- a virtual partner who does not actually exist. The opposite would be riaru (real) kanojo.

* Ookina otomodachi -- on TV shows and at public events, the MC calls children otomodachi (friends). So adults become ookina (big) otomodachi.

* Shiroi iyahon -- white earphones. Used to refer to a person with an iPod.

[ The Japan Times Online ]