6 comments

1. Hello! I’m trying to help a friend out with a translation. He is an amateur sumo wrestler, and his sumo club likes to give its members a shikona (sumo name). He said his is something like “Otter Man,” based off of a mythical half-man-half-otter creature that he identifies with.

   So far I think I’ve figured out that 川獺 “kawauso” means “river otter.” So now I’m trying to figure out if I can just shorten it to 獺 “uso,” and then for the “man” part I’m kind of stumped on how to get a close enough translation given the context. Someone had previously suggested that I can just add 丸 “maru” to make it 川獺丸 “Kawausomaru,” but I’m not sure that would be right. Anyone got any advice on this?

2. I gave a Japanese friend in a game a gift and they thanked me but I don’t know how to respond, I want something similar to “Of course, hope you enjoy it”, but I only know what to do for the first half (いいえ I’m pretty sure). I don’t know enough for the second half (Early A1 still lol, I’ve been learning about….a month and a half now? I think?), and I don’t know if the google translate result is polite or even accurate for the situation (“楽しめ”/”たのしめ”)..

   Any advice appreciated!

3. Not really a question, but I found another interesting intransitive use of を .

   時代を生きている

4. I am not sure what to say in this type of this situation when you are looking for something (in a store, etc) and they don’t have it

   The only phrase I can think of using is あ、すみません/そうですか, but are there better and more natural ways to convey the feeling of “sorry for taking up your time” or “oh, i see” (since it’s spoken and not written)?

5. I have a question related to both Japanese and manga. In Detective Conan Manga File 1005, where Shinichi and Ran kissed, the title of that file is 濃紅の予兆. Is there some sort of 暗号 hidden in this title? 濃has the same pronunciation as 恋, 紅 can be seen as くれない, so this title can be understood as 「蘭は私（新一）に恋をくれない予兆」, an omen that Ran cannot give Shinichi love? Does my interpretation make sense? If so, maybe this indicates that Conan and Haibara would end up in love in the end?

6. Someone makes a call and there is no response and he says 僕の電話も出ない. I am not sure what it means exactly. Perhaps **相手が**僕の電話**に**も出ない?