Read Online Japanese Slang by Peter Constantine - Free Book Online Page B

Those nearest the engine are the maeba (the front place—a sprightly pun on maeba, “front teeth”), the next few cars are the ueba (upper place, or “upper teeth”), and the last several cars the atoba (after place).
    In train jargon pockets are known as p. As the thief moves smiling from passenger to passenger, his first task is to spot the wallet or, if that does not work, fall back on his thievish instinct. If that does not work either, he will do momiwake (grope and understand), also known more nefariously as sagari ni kiku (listening down there), in which fingers run lightly over and about the creases of the victim's trousers. Oddly enough, this is also referred to as kenjiru (to make an offering), and ogamu (to pray).
    â€¢Â Â Â  Saifu o suru mai ni wa dono pmo momiwake shinakucha na!
I had to feel up all the pockets before I got my hands on the wallet!
    â€¢Â Â Â  Ima wa renchminna haba no hiroi pantsu haite yagaru kara sagari ni kiku no wa raku da ze!
Now that everyone's wearing wider pants, listening down there for wallets is easier!
    â€¢Â Â Â  Ymaita ze, jkyaku minna kenjite mita ga, ii mono nani hitotsu mitsukarya shin!
Man, I groped every single passenger—absolutely nothing worthwhile!
    â€¢Â Â Â  Ogande, ogande,yatto yatsu no saifu o mitsuketa ze!
I prayed and prayed until I found his wallet!
    The most idiosyncratic batch of railroad thieves works out of local trains deep in the provinces. These are young men and women who rummage from car to car doing kagidasu (ferreting out), collecting as much plunder as they can. There is no limit to the amount they can collect, because at various strategic points of the journey they open windows and do nagedasu (flinging out), which has earned them thename nagedashizoku (fling-out gangs). As the train chortles along one of the group, the dachi (short for tomodachi, “friend”), follows by car, stopping every so often to collect the wallets, bags, and other valuables off the tracks.

4Japanese Penises
    WHEN VISITING Westerners ask “How do you say penis in Japanese?” or “What's the local word for testicle?” faces turn red, conversations grind to a halt, and bashful friends might even make a dash for the door. Japan's official stance regarding all sexual organs, foreigners often complain, remains “we do not have such words” or “we never say such things.” The persistent linguist, however, will keep prodding his acquaintances until they finally give in and admit that there is a slang word, chinchin. “But don't ever use it!”
    Unconvinced, the seasoned visitors set off for a seedy downtown bar, where they click on their tape recorders and buy round after round after round of drinks. Chinchin, they soon discover, is the mild diminutive of harsher words such as chinpo and chinko, which also appear in the inverted forms pochin and pochi, favorites in modern red-light neighborhoods. Dekachin, a contraction of dekai (hulking) and chinpo (penis), is used for the well-hung, and kkachin, meaning erect penis, comes from kka (elevated) and chinpo (penis). Yokochin (side penis) is an organ that generally rests horizontally in its shorts, while sanpachin is always worn to the left and thus has a tendency tolearn to the side when erect. When a man is wearing boxer shorts or loose swimming trunks and his organ inadvertently pops out, hardened college coeds will point their finger and murmur to each other yokochin moreru (the side penis is escaping). Furuchin (wagging penis) is an exposed penis.
    The madam at the bar sidles over sotto voce and whispers that all these penile words came from the tough chinpoko, which itself originated from the antediluvian chinhoko (life-giving sword).
    â€œIn the beginning,” she explains, “there was Chaos, and the mythical Izanami (the male-who-invites), with the help of his incestuous sister Izanagi, (the female-who-invites), dipped