Japanese loanwords in Hawaii

Loanwords from the Japanese language in Hawaiʻi appear in various parts of the culture. Many

There are other Japanese words common among the Japanese American population (such as "okazu" and "obaachan"), but not as well-known among Hawaiʻi's general population. Such words have not been included here, nor have Japanese words which have entered the English language on a national level, such as "anime," (ja:アニメ) "karaoke," (ja:カラオケ) "samurai," (侍) and "sushi" (ja:寿司). Hawaiʻi is also unique in the United States in that Japanese loanwords often retain Japanese pronunciation, as in the tapped "r" sound even in words that have entered the American English dictionary such as "karaoke" and "karate."

However, as several varieties of Japanese cultural influence in the US in general has increased over the years, it has further bolstered the uses of Japanese terminology in Hawaiʻi. Japanese food has increased in popularity and availability, most notably in the

• Anpan (ja:あんパン, 餡パン): A sweet bread filled with azuki bean paste and sprinkled on top with sesame seeds. Usually larger than the Japanese variety.
• Bentō (ja:弁当
  , べんとう): Box lunch geared for portability for picnics, etc. It typically has rice, a main dish of meat or fish, and side dishes. It used to be food on a paper plate placed inside a thin cardboard box. Now, it's all in convenient styrofoam containers molded for each dish.
• Furikake: A seaweed and sesame seed based condiment commonly used to season rice.
• Manjū (ja:饅頭): Confection with sweet azuki bean paste inside a flour-based outside.
• Miso soup (ja:味噌汁): Soup made of fermented soybean paste called miso. Miso-shiru in Japanese.
• Mochi (ja:餅): Rice cake made of a special kind of rice that has been pounded into a sticky mass. Mochi may be sweetened or unsweetened. Commonly pounded and eaten during New Year's, as in Japan. Sweetened azuki beans are commonly included with mochi as part of a confection.

• Mochi crunch: Rice crackers seasoned with shoyu. Also called "kaki mochi". Called arare in standard Japanese.
• Mochi ice cream: Ice cream coated with a thin layer of frozen mochi.

• Musubi: Rice triangle wrapped in dried seaweed; may or may not have something in the middle, like a pickled
  ume or bits of fish. Spam musubi has a piece of SPAM luncheon meat on top. In Japanese the word onigiri
  is more commonly used for rice balls. Without further clarification, "musubi" usually implies the triangle variety (round balls of rice are only eaten at funerals).
• Shoyu (ja:醤油): Soy sauce. "Shoyu rice" is "soy sauce" sprinkled over rice. "Shoyu x" is some ingredient x cooked in soy sauce, e.g. "Shoyu chicken", "shoyu pork", "shoyu tofu". This term is so widely used that most Hawaii residents are unaware that is not the widely used English language term for soy sauce.
• Sukiyaki (ja:すき焼き): Thin slices of beef, vegetables, and tofu simmered in a skillet or pan in sukiyaki sauce. (It is also the title of a No. 1 hit song in the U.S. made popular by Kyu Sakamoto in 1963. The Japanese title of the song is "Ue o muite arukō—it has nothing to do with the food product.)
• Teriyaki (ja:照り焼き): Grilled meat basted with a sauce made of shoyu and sugar. Meat words such as "chicken" are often appended. A common dish in plate lunches. Often shortened to "teri", e.g. "teri burger".
• Tako (
  poke /poʊˈkeɪ/
  in which case it is called "tako poke".

• Benjo (
  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,
  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.
• "
  television series of the same name become enormously popular in Hawaiʻi, "Kikaida" became a generic name for children's shows featuring superheroes
  .
• 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.