expressions hebereke and berobero both mean to be in a state of dead drunkenness. Kare wa hebereke da or hebereke ni yotte iru, then, mean he's dead drunk. The expression watashi wa anata ni yotte iru literally means I'm drunk over you, or I'm in love with you.
Ō-tora (big tiger) is a violent or roaring drunk. Ōtora are often found sleeping it off in the torabako (tiger box) at local police stations all over Japan.
Yoitsubureru (tsubureru is to be crushed or destroyed) is almost identical to its English equivalent, smashed. Waru-yoi (bad drunk) is used when someone gets sick from drinking. This often happens in Japan, especially around the end of the year. It's a regrettable fact that, in the evening, it's usually wise to watch where you're stepping in certain areas of the city or on train platforms. Futsukayoi (literally, to be drunk for two days) is the Japanese word for a hangover. Aru-chū, which is a derogatory abbreviation for arukōru chūdoku (literally, alcohol poisoning) is used to refer to an alcoholic.
Hashigo (ladder) or hashigo-zake is a good way to become an aru-chū. (Zake here is a euphonic change of sake, which in addition to meaning Japanese rice wine is also a generic term for any alcoholic beverage). These terms refer to pub-crawling or bar-hopping. And when one has been bar-hopping long enough, one's gait becomes chidoh-ashi. Chidori is a plover, which is a long-legged water bird, and ashi is a foot or leg. Plovers walk rather clumsily, zigzagging along like a drunk, and this, obviously, is the origin of this term.
Nomi-ya is a general term for a drinking house. Traditionally, drinking in Japan involves eating as well. Typical locations for drinking in Japan are yakitoh-ya (restaurants serving skewered grilled chicken), oden-ya (restaurants serving oden or Japanese stew), and sushi-ya (sushi restaurants). The least expensive and most popular, though, are the biya horu (beer halls), and ippai-nomi-ya or izaka-ya (drinking houses or pubs). In beer halls a large variety of items is served, from little plates of hors d'oeuvres to full meals. In izaka-ya, customers can get a large variety of o-kazu (side dishes) to accompany beer, sake, whiskey, shōchōū (a cheap liquor made from potatoes, rice, or wheat), and other alcoholic beverages. Restaurant/bars called robata-yaki (literally, fireside grill) are also very popular. These establishments serve food that is grilled right in front of the customers.
Cheap drinking houses often hang red lanterns at the entrance; thus, they are collectively called aka chochin (red lanterns). After having a few drinks and some snacks at such an establishment, a nomisuke might hashigo on his chidori-ashi to a bā, sunakku, or karaoke-bā (bar, small night club, and karaoke bar, respectively).
Speaking of food and drink, although sakana is now used to mean fish, the word actually originates from sake no na, na being literally edible grass or vegetables. Later it came to be a general term for food to enjoy while drinking sake. The redundant sake no sakana has now come to mean the butt of a joke made while drinking. The word sakana by itself can also be used in this context, as in oi, ore o sakana ni shitarō? (you enjoyed making fun of me, didn't you?).
2
Parts of the Body
(shintai kanren)
In Japanese there are many derogatory words related to parts of the body. We'll start with the face.
Busu and buotoko mean, respectively, ugly woman and ugly man. Busu is most derogatory when it is applied to a young woman, and can be regarded as a discriminatory term. One of the largest bookstores in Japan, Kinokuniya, was found guilty of discrimination in a trial held some time ago. The management had apparently set standards of appearance in employing young women. Those considered busu (ugly), those wearing megane (glasses), and those labeled chibi (a derogatory term for a very small person) were not hired.
Busutto shita or busutto shite iru mean to look sullen or sulky, and this may be the etymology of busu.
Okame and hyottoko are a pair of synonyms for busu and buotoko, but they are now rather archaic. You can understand the looks they signify if you've ever had the chance to see the masks used in okagura, sacred Shinto dancing. The female variety has a tiny nose, small narrow slits for eyes, a high forehead, and large round cheeks. Her male counterpart has big, round, stupid-looking eyes and a very protruding mouth. These masks are believed to symbolize the genital organs of the respective sexes, the mouth being the vagina, the nose the clitoris, and the cheeks the testicles. If this seems curious, remember that the Shinto religion celebrates all aspects of life, and many of its ceremonies—the renowned phallic festival, for example—are blatantly sexual.
Okame originally comes from the term otafuku (ugly woman). The kanji for this word mean full of happiness, presumably because a man who marries an ugly woman need have little fear of her infidelity.
During the New Year season, the Japanese play a variety of traditional games. Among them is fuku-warai, which is somewhat like pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey. In fuku-warai, the player is supposed to arrange the parts of the okame face with his or her eyes closed. If the player does well, this assures good fortune in the coming year. Okachimenko, a derivative of okame, is frequently used today as a synonym for busu.
Bukiryō, or busaiku, and fubijin are other rather formal terms for ugly persons. The former can be applied to both sexes; the latter literally means not beautiful person and is applied only to women. Bu-and fu-in this case are prefixes meaning un-as in unattractive. Kiryo means face or personal beauty, and saiku is fine work or ware. Close synonyms are minikui hito (ugly-looking person), hen-na kaō (odd or grotesque face), and the slangy mazui tsura (plain or bad-looking face). Tsura is a vulgar synonym for kaō (face).
The worst expression for an ugly woman, though, is obake (monster). This term and the stronger bakemono (goblin or monster) are often used in a derogatory and critical sense for women who put on too much make-up (atsu-geshō) or who have had cosmetic surgery (seikei shujutsu) with bad results.
Oiwa-scm is the name of a famous obake character in kabuki theater who is ultimately poisoned by her own husband. She appears on stage as a hideous monster; thus the term oiwa-san can be extremely insulting to a woman.
Daburu hatto is a rather odd slang expression often used by students. It refers to a woman who looks great from behind, but, when an admirer catches up sufficiently to see her face, finds she's really quite ugly. Hatto is a mimetic word meaning a surprise, and daburu hatto means doubly surprised. A synonym for this is bakku shan. Bakku comes from the English back and shan from the German schon, meaning a beauty or a belle.
Nafutahn comes from napthalene, the chemical in mothballs that repels moths and other insects. The abbreviated nafu means a really ugly girl.
While we're on the subject of insects, we might mention that the idiomatic expression mushi ga tsuku (an insect catches on a flower or tree) means for a woman to have a lover. Its negative form mushi mo tsukanai (even an insect wouldn't alight), means hopelessly unattractive.
A particularly graphic term that can be applied to a very ugly person, either male or female, is chinkusha. The chin here refers to a Pekingese dog, with its funny face—the eyes, nose, and mouth all seeming to come together in the middle. Kusha is short for kushami (sneeze). Just imagine what a Pekingese dog looks like sneezing and you'll get the idea of the type of person to which chinkusha refers.
Abata-zura and kabocha-zura are used to mean a pockmarked or pitted face. Abata is literally a pockmark or pit, while kabocha is a pumpkin. Zura is a euphonic change of tsura, or face. Nikibi-zura is used to describe a face covered with pimples, nikibi being pimples. Sobakasu are freckles in Japanese, and, when a person is heavily freckled, he can be described as sobakasu-yaro or sobakasu-darake.-Darake is a derogatory suffix meaning full of or covered with. In the West, a moderate amount of freckles is often regarded as cute, or at least aesthetically acceptable, but the Japanese seem to have an aversion to them.
Shiwa-darake or shiwakucha are used to refer to a very wrinkled individual. Shiwa is a wrinkle, line, or furrow, and kucha is an onomatopoetic device for the sound that accompanies crumpling or wrinkling. Thus, shiwakucha babā is a commonly heard derogatory term for a heavily wrinkled old lady. Small wrinkles are called kojiwa, ko-being a prefix meaning small, and jiwa a euphonic change of shiwa. Kojiwa are also called, more elegantly, karasu no ashiato (crows' tracks),