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It's funny how how tenuous the meanings of seemingly basic words can be. In
English, the word "friend" is pretty straightforward, meaning someone you are
friendly with, or just maybe, someone you are romantically involved with, but
don't want to admit it to others. Most of my English-speaking "friends" are
close in age to me, but I certainly could have a friend who was 25, or 45, or
75, if I wanted to. It's not uncommon to classify someone I know only as a
passing acquaintance as a "friend," too, for convenience or to avoid being
rude. In Japanese, however, the concept of what a friend is can be quite
different. The most common word for friend is "tomodachi" (which literally
means "those who you go with"), and it has a more "close" feel to it than the
English word. "Tomodachi" in school years are almost always the same age;
otherwise you'd use the term "senpai" (for upperclassman) or
"kouhai" (for underclassman), which are quite different concepts in Japan's
vertically-oriented society. The other day, my son was playing dodgeball with
a boy he's known since preschool -- they've played together for years. I
talked about the boy with my wife, using the word "tomodachi." My wife
corrected me, saying the boys weren't friends in that sense, but were instead
osana-najimi (o-SAH-NAH NAH-jee-mee). The word, which comes up in anime and
bishoujo games quite a lot, refers to someone you were very close to since
childhood, and it seems to be both more and less than the English word friend.
"An osana-najimi is different from tomodachi," my wife explained to me.
"They're always there, and you don't even notice them after a while. You get
so used to being with each other, it's like air."
There comes a time in the life of every gaijin that he is called upon to
perform a service for his Japanese hosts. I'm talking, of course, about
dressing up as "Santa-san" (as he's usually called by Japanese kids) for the
school Christmas Party. Christmas is a very bright and happy time in Japan,
and no Christmas Party would be complete without a real live gaijin Santa
Claus, dressed from head to toe in bright read "Santa wear." This year I was
asked to play Santa at a preschool run by a friend of ours, and I was happy to
oblige, handing out gifts to all of the kids with a hearty ho-ho-ho! and being
careful not to speak Japanese so as not to break the mood. The kids were happy
to see a "real" Santa Claus and thanked me as I handed out their presents. As
usual, not everyone was happy to see a big, red foreigner invade their school,
and several of the younger kids were bawling their eyes out while the
preschool teachers comforted them.
If you've browsed our website, you've probably seen the "phone straps" we
sell, which are popular in Japan as stylish attachments for your cell phone,
although you can use the straps with camera, PDAs like Palm Pilots, Sony
PSP, and as a keychain, since the nylon string is very strong. Well, did you know
these phone straps were actually an updated form of Japanese art going back to
the 17th century? Since kimonos have no pockets, men in the Edo Period needed
a way to carry their money and other belongings, and they started using small
cloth pouches with drawstrings and intricately carved figures called "netsuke"
(net-TSOO-keh) on the ends of the strings. To help you add a little bit of
classic Japanese tradition to your daily life, we've added some great netsuke
straps featuring Lucky Cat Hello Kitty, which promise to bring you good luck
in the form of business success, passing a difficult test, succeeding at
finding love, and traffic safety. If you have a cell phone or similar portable
gadget, why not snag a cool netsuke strap for it?
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