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A new car company is coming to Japan, but
Japanese consumers are already quite familiar with its products.
After years of speculation, Toyota is finally bringing their
Lexus brand of luxury automobiles to the domestic market,
opening a nationwide network of dealerships here in an attempt
at stealing some of the thunder from BMW and Mercedes-Benz. The
funny thing is, the cars sold under the Lexus moniker have
always been available in Japan, with names like Windom (ES330,
advertised on television with the words "Are you
Windom?"), Soarer (SC430, which used "Soarer for mind
cruising" as its slogan) and Harrier (RX300, "Stylish,
but formal"). A lot of people are wondering if Toyota can
build a successful brand identity for Lexus here, when the newly
introduced vehicles will mainly be spruced up versions of
already available cars, but with fatter price tags. Unlike much
of the world, where the name Toyota originally meant small, fuel
efficient cars, Japanese have never had a problem buying a large
range of vehicles under the name Toyota.
We never think about idioms in our own
language, but to non-native speakers such as the Japanese,
learning the meanings of phrases like "to leave no stone
unturned" or "to stick your neck out for someone"
is a challenge. There are idioms in Japanese, too, including
many that make use of parts of the body in different ways. The
phrase "koshi ga hikui" (lit. "one's lower back
is low, near to the ground") means a person who is very
humble and always apologizing (a good thing in the context of
Japan), but "shiri ga aoi" ("one's rear end is
blue") means they're too young or lack experience, since
babies born in Asia have a blue spot on their rear ends until
the age of two or so. If someone can't keep a secret, they are
"kuchi ga karui" ("their mouth is too
light"), but if they are "kuchi ga umai"
("their mouth is skilled") then they're good at making
jokes or getting others to agree with them. The eyes in Japanese
are called "me" (pronounced "meh"), and some
idioms that make use of eyes include "me ga takai"
(lit. "your eyes are high"), meaning someone with very
high standards, and "me ga ten ni natta" ("my
eyes became little black dots"), meaning, I was so
surprise, my face looked like a character out of a manga.
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