Japanese Loanwords in Hawaii - Objects

Objects

• Benjo (ja:便所): Toilet, interchangeable with Hawaiian-derived lua. Although originally a Japanese word with no particular connotation, in Japan, it is now considered to be crude, and many Japanese people find this term offensive. (See also: Japanese toilet).
• Bobora: A country hick fresh off the boat from Japan. Also called "Japan bobora". Originally from a regional Japanese dialect, based on the Portuguese word abóbora, meaning a Japanese squash.
• Boro boros: Dirty clothes, rags. Old clothes worn for activities like house painting, car repair, etc.
• Chawan cut: A hairstyle that was common among little Japanese girls. It looked like someone put a bowl (茶碗, chawan) over the head and cut around the rim. In Japanese, it is called okappa, after the Japanese mythological creature called kappa which sports a similar haircut.
• Daikon legs: Daikon (ja:ダイコン or 大根) are large white radishes having a stubby shape. The term refers to Japanese women's legs which seem short and stubby. This is rumored to be the result of sitting on the floor for long periods. The Japanese equivalent is daikon ashi.
• Giri-giri: The cowlick. Giri giri is an onomatopoeic word with a different meaning in standard Japanese. This use of the word originates from local dialects spoken in mainly western Japan where it means tsumuji, the standard Japanese word for the cowlick.
• Hanakuso: Dried nasal mucus. Hana means nose, and kuso means waste. Kuso in Japanese typically refers to human excrement. This compound is also found in standard Japanese.
• Hanabuddah (or hanabata): The fluid version of hanakuso. Bata is from English "butter". The term in Japanese is usually hanamizu ("nose water").
• Hanabuddah days: Hanabuddah is most commonly seen on young children who neglect to wipe their runny noses. Thus, hanabuddah days refers to one's youth in Hawaiʻi.
• Hashi (also ohashi): Chopsticks, as in Japanese.
• "Kikaida": After the television series of the same name become enormously popular in Hawaiʻi, "Kikaida" became a generic name for children's shows featuring superheros.
• Shishi: Urine or urination, used in "go shishi" or "make shishi". The Double-Tongued Dictionary gives three possible etymologies for "shishi": imitative from the sound of urinating, Japanese reduplicated shi from shiko "urinate" (sic., probably shito 尿 "urine"), or Portuguese xixi "urinate". There is a Japanese kanji joke based on 五-四-四 "5-4-4", which can be read go-shi-shi in Japanese. Thus, “I gotta five-four-four” is a Pidgin euphemism for "I gotta go shishi".
• Zori: Rubber thonged slippers, often called flip-flops in the continental U.S. Also zoris (plural). Synonymous with "slippers" or "slippahs". From the Japanese word zori (ja:草履). Called "beach sandal" (ja:ビーチサンダル) in standard Japanese.