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Thread: Japanese puns

  1. #1
    Twirling dragon Maciamo's Avatar
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    Arrow Japanese puns

    When I am tired, puns come out of my mouth naturally. I don't know if it's a disease, but I can't help it. Fortunately, I only utter them with close relatives. I will make an exception here.

    Here are a few selected ones I can remember (as I make them when I am tired, I tend not to remember them well).

    Asking my wife : "Could you give me the digital turtles ?"
    - my wife : "..."
    - (seeing that she doesn't understand) : "deji-kame" is short for "dejitaru kamera" isn't it. So in English, "digital turtles". One turtle is "kame" in Japanese. The plural is "kamera".

    Today while going to the Ghibli Museum (which I do not recommend, btw) : "Mitaka ka Kichijouji eki, dochi ga ii no kashira ?" (I wonder which is better of Mitaka or Kichijouji station). The museum is located in the Inokashira Park, between these two stations...

    Watching an anime on TV tonight, there was a doll of a mermaid, so I said : "kore wa ningyo no ningyo desu ka ?" (Is that a mermaid doll ?). The words for "mermaid" and "doll" are homonynous in Japanese.

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  2. #2
    Regular Member den4's Avatar
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    We used to use No Ginger or No Salt in the place of Shoganai or shioganai (shikataganai), depending upon the local dialect...

    or, when somebody praised something as being great, they'd say, "saikou desu ne..." and we'd say, "Psycho desu ka? kichigai? ku-rei-gi? Kurrutteru?" ok....I'll go back to not knowing anything again....probably much safer
    I know nothing...except the answer is 42. You know more than I do.

  3. #3
    Regular Member Gaijinian's Avatar
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    My nengajou:

    鳥の年を取り戻し!平十八年

    Last years:
    猿は去るんだ!

    I LOVE your deji-kamera, by the way! ;)

    Oh, see my sig!!!

    I also like doing things like:
    実災の状態・・・・・, if I am unhappy with the situation.

    Or

    英会話は英快話!

    On-yomi kotoba-asobi!

    My friend was trying to learn Thai:

    So I asked Thai変ですか?

    花粉は華の洟。(笑)
    いや、花糞(かふん)じゃないか?w
    Last edited by Gaijinian; Nov 7, 2005 at 13:17.
    これからも絶対頑張る〜

  4. #4
    Twirling dragon Maciamo's Avatar
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    Yesterday I heard someone in the bus talking about new age, which with his Japanese accent pronounced "nyuueiji". I wanted to ask him if if was talking about a temple called 入永寺 or about "enlistment time" (入営時).

  5. #5
    目録 Index's Avatar
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    You guys have been in Japan too long....

  6. #6
    Resident Realist nice gaijin's Avatar
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    おそらくもってるよ。Am I saying that the sky is cloudy, or I am probably carrying something

  7. #7
    絶望と共に散りゆく者 kumo's Avatar
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    Those are funny!

    I know a few with kanji, but they are not that funny... I don't even know if they can be considered puns

    女が喜ぶと嬉しい。

    人の夢は儚い。

    女が三人集まったところを集団で姦す。(maybe this one was too hard-core )
    男2人と女1人で3Pすると嬲る。

    And the classic:
    信+者=儲け

  8. #8
    Danshaku Elizabeth's Avatar
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    Today while going to the Ghibli Museum (which I do not recommend, btw) : "Mitaka ka Kichijouji eki, dochi ga ii no kashira ?" (I wonder which is better of Mitaka or Kichijouji station). The museum is located in the Inokashira Park, between these two stations...
    It isn't especially dajare or anything, but I always think of something like this when I hear the earthquake reinforcement scandal story :

    (耐震)強度(協同)不足すると、震度5強程度の場合は、 全都会は倒壊のおそれが� る。

    And if someone finds more gems in there, please let me know.

    The last one I used was 尺八を作る, before learning how vulger it potentially could be to the right mind.

    Just as an aside, in Maciamo's example you can still have your pun but I think maybe it should have been Mitaka to Kichijouji to (de wa) dochi ga ii no kashira ? otherwise instead of which station you're asking whether either is better. I was at both last week this time too and personally prefer the design of Kichijouji....

     
    Last edited by Elizabeth; Dec 11, 2005 at 07:02.

  9. #9
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    I agree. The Japanese version is A LOT better. The biggest reason is that 90% of the humor doesn't translate well into English and just comes off as lame. Another is that the English voice acting bites.

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