Welcome to Kimetsu no Japanese, a site for learning Japanese from a manga Demon Slayer.
Did you see our Rengoku saying “Umai, umai!” eating a lunch box?
Today’s topic
Ch.54 Vol.7
Kyojuro Rengoku (煉獄 杏寿郎)
Reference source : 五峠呼世晴 (2017) 鬼滅の刃7 集英社
うまい！ うまい！ うまい！
DELICIOUS! DELICIOUS! DELICIOUS!
Reference source : KOYOHARU GOTOUGE. (2019). Demon Slayer 7. VIZ Media, LL
| WORD | JPN♪ | MEANING |
|---|---|---|
| うまい | umai | delicious, yummy |
OK, today’s topic is too simple to say anything else…
But as in English they express “delicious”, “yummy” or “it tastes good” and etc., Japanese also has other ways of saying “delicious”.
Comparing 4 ways of DELICIOUS
| WORD | JPN♪ | MEANING |
| おいしい | oishii | Standard way to say “it tastes good”. “THIS tastes good.” = “これはおいしい。 (KORE wa oishii)” |
| うまい | umai | Meaning “delicious, yummy” but it is a men’s word and casual. (Women can use it though.) |
| 美味 | bimi | Deliciousness. This kanji literally means “Beautiful Taste, good flavor”. More formal than おいしい. “The taste was excellent!” = “とても美味でした(totemo bimi deshita)” |
| 絶品 | zeppin | A superb piece, masterpiece. It is used when you want to express a great taste like saying “this tastes incredible”. |
“Oishii” is probably a mostly used word as “it tastes good” but “umai” is used a lot too.
But I want you to remember that “oishii” is more polite and formal than “umai”, so it’s better to use “umai” among your friends or family only.
Talking about the bento…
By the way, a bento (lunch box) Rengoku was eating in the train was said “牛鍋弁当” (gyūnabe bento). It’s a kind of sukiyaki lunch box. In Japan, there are a lot of EKIBEN, meaning “station lunch box” which are sold in each train station. Rengoku’s bento may be ekiben too. Ekiben is a local stuff and is very different depending on areas. In Taisyo era, people started to eat beef but in advanced regions only, so MAYBE Rengoku bought this bento in somewhere in Tokyo. It’s only my guess.
In ufotable’s twitter, they said ufotable cafe served this lunch box last year as a collaboration campaign!
Ah, I wanted to have this… it looks very tasty!
How to say “Looks tasty”
One of the words we often use (maybe used globally) is “it looks tasty”.
In Japanese, you can remember these two ways;
おいしそう。(oishisō)
うまそう。(umasō)
Everyone can use “oishisō”, if you are a man, you can use “umasō” too. If you say “umasō”, they may think you are familiar to Japanese but it could be rude sometimes. I recommend you to use “oishisō”.
That’s all
In the future if you travel Japan using train or Shinkansen, you’ll definitely buy ekiben and enjoy it, and now you know what you have to say, right…?
Of course, UMAI !!
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