Japanese Slang (3 page)

•   
Asu ore ga butai e kamaru no o matte mira yo!
Just you wait till I barge onto that stage tomorrow!

The crawlers and sneak thieves who barged into these houses were also given new names. They reappeared as
nukeshi
(void specialists),
nuke-chan
(little Mr. Void),
akishi
(empty specialists),
kisukai
(from
akisukai,
“empty-nest buyer”),
sukai
(nest buyers), and, more elegantly,
gaik
in
(commercial travelers).
Shinobi
(creeping into) was molded into a whole line of new words.
Shinobishi
(creep specialist) became the rage and after the police adopted it, it was pruned down to
nobi
and
nobishi (nobi
-master), and then, for optimum security, was further disguised as
nobe
and
nobeshi.

The law, however, was quick to pick up on these words too, and feverish bands of burglars churned out ever more outlandish expressions. Sneak thieves
became
yaya
(house-ters),
yashiya
(mansioners),
tobi
(kites),
konch
(bugs), and
sagashi
(seekers). Some clans even resorted to effervescent nonsensical names like
zabu
(bubbles),
nagajirashi
(long teasers), and
nagashari
(“noodles,” a word of dubious Buddhist priestly origin, literally “long Buddha's bones”). The idea that many of the older diehard professionals had the habit of carefully tiptoeing from room to room in their socks gave rise to the jejune quip
shirotabi
(white tabi-socks—traditional socks that younger and more fashion-conscious criminals would not be caught dead stealing in). In naughtier cliques, the now standard expression for sneak thief,
akisunerai
(empty-nest targeter), has been flipped into a rebarbative
ketsunerai
(ass targeter) and
ketsusagashi
(ass searcher). The logic behind this witty switch is that
ketsu
(ass) and
ana
(hole) are written with the same character. A sneak thief, the gangsters argue, prods about in the dark searching for a hole to enter.

The even earthier criminals go all out and refer to breaking and entering as
kamahoru
(ass fucking) and burglars as
kamahori
(ass fuckers).

•   
Aitsu mo karekore ketsunerai yatte yonj
nen k
!
Well, he's been an ass targeter for forty years now!

•   
Ketsusagashi'tte no wa mattaku hone no oreru shigoto daze!
Being an ass searcher is real stressful, you know!

•   
Kamahoru nante ore mo iya da yo! Shikashi uchi nya kak
to gaki ga matte yagaru kara na!
I've had it with ass fucking! But what can I do, I have a wife and kids at home!

•   
Ana K
be kara kita kamahori nakanaka yaru na.
That ass fucker from Kobe's real good.

Chaster bands have given their boys the swash-buckling names of the legendary neighborhood criminals of yesteryear. Tay
, T
be, Kanpei, or Sansho serve as practical synonyms in everyday gang jargon. The names of shoddier ancestors have also survived on the streets. These are doled out to sneak thieves who are less successful, such as Gonkichi, for individuals who never manage to pull off a hefty job, Gonsuke, for maladroit and bedraggled criminals who live from hand to mouth, and Heikur
, for sneak thieves who, barely escaping from a botched-up job, are in hiding.

Gangs with a high ethnic Korean membership went in for a simpler linguistic solution. While their all-Japanese counterparts scraped for clever new secret terms, these gangs simply peppered their clandestine speech with exotic Korean expressions. Sneak thieves were given long and impenetrable names that were sure to baffle even the most streetwise police unit:
chim
ruhetsuta, banchiorutokii, utsuharakachiya,
and
konkurusarubisa.
Some of the more pronounceable Korean gang-words for stealers, such as
sartgui
(mouse), the hybrid
chiuya (chiu,
Korean for “rat,” and
ya,
Japanese for “guy”), and
k
(hound) made the broader national scene.