Japanese Slang (5 page)

Lootable homes were also ordered into strict categories. For instance, a house that is always left unattended in the morning is
asa aki
(morning empty), while
hinaka
(broad daylight), and
hiru'kisu
(noon-time empty-nest) are good midday targets.

•   
Asa aki bakkari to omotetan da n
! Chhe! Poka shichimatta!
I thought that house was always empty in the mornings! Man was I wrong!

•   
Nagahama-d
ri wa hinaka darake datta no shitteta ka?
Did you know that Nagahama Street is full of empty houses at lunch time?

A quick noon job is known as
hirumai
(noontime dance),
tent
(heavenly road), or
nitch
o fumu
(stepping on broad daylight). Thieves who work exclusively
during lunch hours call themselves
hishi
(day masters),
nitch
shi
(broad-daylight specialists),
hiruwashi
(noontime eagles) or, in downtown Tokyo,
shirotobi.
The origin of the word
shirotobi
has sparked great controversy among the gangs. Some maintain that it means “white kite,” others “white cape,” others still “white pilferer.” In his book
Ingo Kotoba no Kuruizaki,
the renowned linguist Umegaki Minoru argues that the
shiro
of
shirotobi
is really just a bastardization of
shiru,
the Tokyo-dialect word for lunchtime
(hiru).
The elegant
shirotobi,
he decrees, is none other than the modest
hirutombi
(lunchtime pilferer).

Homes that are regularly left defenseless in the evening are ranked as
yoiaki
(nightfall empty), and more poetically as
bankei
(evening scenery), and evening thieves call their sprees
yoimatsuri
(nightfall festivals),
koigamari
(dark crawls),
yoigamari
(evening crawls), and
yoarashi
(night intrusion).

•   
Yoiaki da to omotte shinobikonda no ni, bab
ga neteru no mitsukete tamagechimatta ze!
I broke in thinking it was a nightfall empty, but this old bitch was asleep inside. Man, you should have seen me freak!

•   
Koko futaban no yoimatsuri wa mattaku hisan datta ze!
The last two nighttime festivals were a total flop!

•   
Kin
no ban wa koigamari ni wa chotto samusugi da ze.
Last night was a bit too cold for a dark crawl.

Professionals who specialize in late-night thievery are known on street corners as
k
mori
(bats),
taka
(hawks),
yonaki
(night cries),
yash
(night businessmen),
yonashi
(night specialists), and
anma
(traditional
blind masseurs—they work in the dark, feeling their way around).
Fuke
(staying up late) is also used, along with nimble variations such as
fukenin
(stay-up-late person), and
fukeshi
(stay-up-late specialist). But heavy criminal jargon, in constant fear of police discovery, calls its nocturnal thieves
tatonuhowa
(blowing out the candle),
p
tairen
(uninvolved guy),
honteinu
(confused in the dark),
yauren
(servant gang), and
teinshin
(by starlight), words of ethnic Chinese extraction, and
kipuntoi, chinsa,
and
s
s
yotsu,
of ethnic Korean background.