Gaijin Stories

These short stories are a collection of my experiences while living in Tokyo. I hope people wishing to learn more about Japan and gaijin in japan wishing to compare experiences will find them interesting. I also hope some Japanese people will find a gaijin's perspective interesting reading as well.

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

13 - Cute Things

One of the most commonly spoken Japanese words in a Japanese girls vocabulary is "kawaii". It's English transalation is "cute" and means "It's cute" or "She's cute" etc.
There's no doubt that Japanese men in Japan prefer "cute girls" more than beautiful, sexy and intelligent women so Japanese ladies often compliment each other on cute things. Frills on clothes, hair curls, ribbons on high heels and so on. Japanese girls who have cute things to match their cute personalities add to their cuteness factor. Small handbags, pink robbons, small roses stuck to their mobile phones, small soft toys hanging from bags or phones etc.

The best way to complient a Japanese lady is to notice something of hers which is cute (but definitely not things like her skirt and breasts) and say "this is cute". You can even try to say it in Japanese. "Kawaii"

The pronunciation is like Hawaii with a K at the front. Make sure you start with a "ka" or "car" sound and not a "ko" sound. "Kowai" means scary.