News! "a euphemism for the penis"

[Taro Toporific]

[floatl][/floatl]

TRAVEL: BIG IN JAPAN
Mirror.co.uk - News -3 June 2006
....This invigorating city [Tokyo] is a place like no other, with 35 million people jammed in to the conurbation, half of them seeming to wear some sort of uniform and waving a fluorescent stick.
By the way, train spotters take note - 750,000 people use Tokyo station every day. But that's nothing, two million use Shinjuki station. No wonder they employ people to shove passengers into the trains....By the way, when drinking don't say "chin chin" instead of bottoms up or cheers. Here it's a euphemism for the penis! ...more...

[Mulboyne]

DOS & DON'TS
DO leave some food on your plate when you've finished a meal - if you don't it implies you didn't get enough food.

What's all that about?

[Taro Toporific]

DOS & DON'TS
DO leave some food on your plate when you've finished a meal - if you don't it implies you didn't get enough food.

What's all that about?

Leaving food on the plate was a social custom of aspiring social climbers in Japan in the 1950-60s. Among both the upper classes and lower middle classes in Japan it has been and continues to be mottainai (もったいない) ---wasteful/sacrilegious.

( My guess is this is still a custom in Taiwan and Taiwanese-Japanese.)

[omae mona]

And at least there were signs in English. Before the 2002 World Cup held in Japan most signs were only in kanji script.

Oh, how true. It was impossible to read anything back in those days! Take for example a photo I snapped in 2001:


Thank god for the relabelling in 2002:

[nullpointer]

Fuck U Cup? I ain't never buying THAT shit!

[Choeki]

By the way, when drinking don't say "chin chin" instead of bottoms up or cheers. Here it's a euphemism for the penis!

Isn't the written chin chin (assuming it's the Chinese toasting phrase) pronounced shi-en shi-en?

[Taro Toporific]

Isn't the written chin chin (assuming it's the Chinese toasting phrase) pronounced shi-en shi-en?

An excerpt from http://www.i18nguy.com/humor/chin-chin.html via flickr.

"Chin-chin" is an italian toast, (actually Cin-Cin) which I believe means the equivalent of "to your health". One of our Japanese engineers had once told us a story about this. Apparently, a Japanese business man goes to a dinner event. During the course of the dinner, an Italian raises his glass and toasts "Chin-chin!" to the Japanese man. At first, the Japanese looks stunned. He looks at the Italian, and apparently detecting that the Italian meant no harm, he raises his glass and sips his drink sharing in the toast. He smiles broadly.

Later in the evening, someone who noticed his facial expressions during the toast, goes to the Japanese man and asks him about his reaction. He smiles and explains:

"I had not heard this particular toast before. In Japanese, the word 'chin' means penis. So when he said 'chin-chin' to me, I thought at first he was insulting me. Then I thought about it, and decided if this man wants to toast my penis, who am I to argue? So I accepted the toast gladly."

[Naniwan Kid]