Genki Japanese and Culture School - Wordplay<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"News and commentary from GenkiJACS, a Japanese language school in Fukuoka, Japan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Genki Japanese and Culture School - Wordplay\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"News and commentary from GenkiJACS, a Japanese language school in Fukuoka, Japan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"GenkiJACS Japanese School\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/genkijacs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-02-10T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/20150129-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"150\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"150\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/\",\"name\":\"Genki Japanese and Culture School - Wordplay\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/20150129-2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-02-10T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-02-10T00:00:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"description\":\"News and commentary from GenkiJACS, a Japanese language school in Fukuoka, Japan\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/20150129-2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/20150129-2.jpg\",\"width\":150,\"height\":150},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Wordplay\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"GenkiJACS Japanese School\",\"description\":\"The latest news from Genki Japanese and Culture School\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Genki Japanese and Culture School - Wordplay","description":"News and commentary from GenkiJACS, a Japanese language school in Fukuoka, Japan","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Genki Japanese and Culture School - Wordplay","og_description":"News and commentary from GenkiJACS, a Japanese language school in Fukuoka, Japan","og_url":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/","og_site_name":"GenkiJACS Japanese School","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/genkijacs","article_published_time":"2015-02-10T00:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":150,"height":150,"url":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/20150129-2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/","url":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/","name":"Genki Japanese and Culture School - Wordplay","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/20150129-2.jpg","datePublished":"2015-02-10T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2015-02-10T00:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"description":"News and commentary from GenkiJACS, a Japanese language school in Fukuoka, Japan","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/20150129-2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/20150129-2.jpg","width":150,"height":150},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Wordplay"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/","name":"GenkiJACS Japanese School","description":"The latest news from Genki Japanese and Culture School","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2133"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

\n<\/div>\n

| <\/p>\n

Alrighty! Here we go, your go-to expression for this week! Did you know Japanese also has wordplay? The Japanese love it and call it \u8a00\u8449\u904a\u3073 (\u3053\u3068\u3070\u3042\u305d\u3073 – “kotoba asobi”).<\/p>\n

Here are a few examples of Japanese words and phrases that, when said out loud, sound like English:<\/p>\n

\u30cf\u30de\u30c1 : hamachi (Japanese meaning: Yellowtail sushi) \u2013 Sounds like: “How much?”
\u3044\u3064\u76f8\u64b2\u7d42\u308f\u308b\uff1f : itsu sumo owaru? (Japanese meaning: When does the Sumo end?) \u2013 Sounds like: “It\u2019s a small world.”
\u307b\u3063\u305f\u828b\u3044\u3058\u3093\u306a : Hotta imo ijinna (Japanese meaning: Leave those potatoes alone) \u2013 Sounds like:\u3000”What time is it now?”<\/p>\n

In Japanese, numbers’ pronunciation can also sometimes be adapted to form words. Like…<\/p>\n

37564 \u2013 \u307f\u306a\u3054\u308d\u3057 : Massacre (In this example, 3 – usually pronounced “san” – is pronounced “mi” (as it is in words such as \uff13\u65e5\u9593 – “mikkakan” or “three days”. 7 – “nana” – gets shortened to “na”. And so on…)<\/p>\n

$\"20150129-2.jpg\"$ <\/p>\n

18782 – \u3044\u3084\u306a\u3084\u3064 : Unpleasant guy (above?) Time to use sneaky number codes around mean guys.<\/p>\n

$\"20150129-3.jpg\"$ <\/p>\n

4649 – \u3088\u308d\u3057\u304f : Nice to meet you, please treat me well!<\/p>\n

What kind of Japanese wordplay do you know? Little things make studying Japanese interesting and more fun, don\u2019t you think? <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

| Alrighty! Here we go, your go-to expression for this week! Did you know Japanese also has wordplay? The Japanese love it and call it \u8a00\u8449\u904a\u3073 (\u3053\u3068\u3070\u3042\u305d\u3073 – “kotoba asobi”). Here are a few examples of Japanese words and phrases that, when said out loud, sound like English: \u30cf\u30de\u30c1 : hamachi (Japanese meaning: Yellowtail sushi)…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nGenki Japanese and Culture School - Wordplay<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"News and commentary from GenkiJACS, a Japanese language school in Fukuoka, Japan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Genki Japanese and Culture School - Wordplay\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"News and commentary from GenkiJACS, a Japanese language school in Fukuoka, Japan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"GenkiJACS Japanese School\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/genkijacs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-02-10T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/20150129-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"150\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"150\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/\",\"name\":\"Genki Japanese and Culture School - Wordplay\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/20150129-2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-02-10T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-02-10T00:00:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"description\":\"News and commentary from GenkiJACS, a Japanese language school in Fukuoka, Japan\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/20150129-2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/20150129-2.jpg\",\"width\":150,\"height\":150},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Wordplay\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"GenkiJACS Japanese School\",\"description\":\"The latest news from Genki Japanese and Culture School\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Genki Japanese and Culture School - Wordplay","description":"News and commentary from GenkiJACS, a Japanese language school in Fukuoka, Japan","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Genki Japanese and Culture School - Wordplay","og_description":"News and commentary from GenkiJACS, a Japanese language school in Fukuoka, Japan","og_url":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/","og_site_name":"GenkiJACS Japanese School","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/genkijacs","article_published_time":"2015-02-10T00:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":150,"height":150,"url":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/20150129-2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/","url":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/","name":"Genki Japanese and Culture School - Wordplay","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/20150129-2.jpg","datePublished":"2015-02-10T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2015-02-10T00:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"description":"News and commentary from GenkiJACS, a Japanese language school in Fukuoka, Japan","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/20150129-2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/20150129-2.jpg","width":150,"height":150},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wordplay\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Wordplay"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/","name":"GenkiJACS Japanese School","description":"The latest news from Genki Japanese and Culture School","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2133"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}