Volcanoes

'Volcano' in Japanese is 火山（かざん）- a 'fire mountain'- but it is possible to be more specific by adding kanji to the beginning of this word:

• 活火山（かつかざん）： an active volcano
• 休火山（きゅうかざん）： a dormant volcano
• 死火山（しかざん）： an extinct volcano

Random Japanese: 夜鍋する

Reading: よなべする

This literally means 'a night nabe', but comes to mean (as a verb) 'to work at night'.

Twenty ways to die in Japanese

 

One of the great things about kanji compounds is that words with very specific meanings can be made very easily (by simply combining two kanji), where in English to express the same meaning would often require a whole phrase. A example of this is in the words for expressing the cause of death, with a large number of remarkably specific words in common use. Here, then, is a list of 20 ways to die in Japanese. Not all of these words are commonly used, but still, it's interesting enough that they even exist:

• 轢死（れきし）： death by being hit by a train, car, etc.
• 憤死（ふんし）： death in a fit of rage
• 圧死（あっし）： death by being crushed
• 獄死（ごくし）： death in prison
• 焼死（しょうし）： death from burns
• 縊死（いし）： death by hanging oneself
• 凍死（とうし）： freezing to death
• 慙死（ざんし）： death from embarrassment
• 震死（しんし）： death from being hit by lightning
• 過労死（かろうし）： death from overwork
• 煙死（えんし）： death from smoke (or poison gas) inhalation
• 窒死（ちっし）： death from suffocation
• 狂死（きゅうし）： death from going mad
• 墜死（ついし）： death from falling from a high place
• 餓死（がし）： death from starvation
• 溺死（できし）： death from drowning
• 毒死（どくし）： death from poisoning
• 客死（かくし）： death in a foreign country, or while travelling
• 扼死（やくし）： death from strangulation (with bare hands)
• 情死（じょうし）： a lovers' suicide

 

Random Japanese: 凍死する

Reading: とうしする

This verb means 'freeze to death'. Potentially quite a useful word on a night like tonight (here in Hiroshima, it would probably be quite easy to freeze to death tonight...).

Random Japanese: 血液型

Reading: けつえきがた

This word means 'blood type'. In Japan, blood type is very often used as a way of predicting someone's personality.

Everyday items in Japanese: 懐炉

Reading: かいろ

'Kairo' are small pads which, when exposed to the air, get warm. They are used for heating during winter. Some kairo can be stuck to clothes, while others are designed to be held.

Japanese in pictures: 毛糸

Reading: けいと

The sign on a wool shop, meaning (not surprisingly) 'wool', appropriately enough made of balls of wool.

Random Japanese: うつ伏せ

Reading: うつぶせ

This word means 'lying on your front'. The verb- in other words, 'lie on your front'- is うつ伏せになる.

Random Japanese: シャボン玉

Reading: しゃぼんだま

This word means 'a soap bubble'.

Japanese in pictures: 鹿

Reading: しか

The kanji for deer, engraved in stone at a temple in Okimi, Etajima.