Idioms are common to most, if not all, languages. Oftentimes, they share meanings with idioms in other languages, notwithstanding every place has its ain funny phrases to express universal sentiments and experiences. Japan is no exception. Endless Japanese idioms have become staples of everyday conversation, and though they may audio strange to American ears at first, many of them sound just equally cool translated into English. Here are thirty Japanese quotes and phrases to write in your travel journal and first using direct away.

1. 自業自得

Translation: "Ane's human action, one's profit"

Meaning: Similar to "you reap what you sow." Everyone eventually faces the consequences of their deportment.

two. 十人十色

Translation: "Ten men, 10 colors"

Significant: Like to "dissimilar strokes for different folks." People have dissimilar tastes and preferences — and that's okay.

three. 起死回生

Translation: "Wake from expiry and return to life"

Meaning: To have a bad or desperate situation and plow it into a successful ane.

4. 我田引水

Translation: "Pulling water to my own rice paddy"

Meaning: To do or say things for your own benefit.

5. 悪因悪果

Translation: "Evil cause, evil upshot"

Significant: Some other iteration of "y'all reap what you sow." This one is a tad more specific and most suggests a karmic consequence.

6. 見ぬが花

Translation: "Non seeing is a flower."

Meaning: In Japan, flowers tin be used to represent imagination, beauty, and sometimes politeness. In this case, the idiom means, "Reality cannot compete with imagination."

7. 弱肉強食

Translation: "The weak are meat; the strong eat."

Pregnant: This i's pretty straightforward, meaning something like "survival of the fittest." Bonus points because it rhymes.

8. 海千山千

Translation: "Body of water 1000, mount one thousand"

Meaning: A reference to the sly old fox, someone who'southward seen everything and tin therefore handle whatever situation, ordinarily through cunning.

ix. 酔生夢死

Translation: "Drunken life, dreamy death"

Meaning: To dream your life away or accept your caput in the clouds. To spend all your time daydreaming without accomplishing annihilation.

ten. 一期一会

Translation: "One life, 1 run across"

Significant: Every encounter is a in one case-in-a-lifetime encounter. Sometimes used as a reminder to cherish every moment considering you'll only experience it one time.

11. 異体同心

Translation: "Dissimilar body, same mind"

Pregnant: Refers to kindred spirits or like-minded people, somewhat similar to calling someone a "brother from another mother."

12. 羊頭狗肉

Translation: "Sheep head, dog meat"

Meaning: Simulated advertising, like to the phrase "crying wine and selling vinegar," merely the Japanese idiom paints a more than graphic picture.

13. 会者定離

Translation: "Meeting person always separated"

Pregnant: Perhaps the almost Confucius-esque idiom of the bunch, this one simply means that every coming together must stop in a parting.

14. 美人薄命

Translation: "Cute person, thin life"

Pregnant: More superstition than anything else, this one really ways that a "beautiful woman is destined to dice young" but is more coordinating to "beauty fades."

15. 自業自得

Translation: "Work of self, obtainment of self"

Meaning: Similar to "you get what yous give," only the Japanese version sounds way more fulfilling and relevant for self-improvement.

Other idiomatic phrases that relate to English idioms or proverbs

16. 虎穴に入らずんば虎子を得ず。

Translation: "If you lot do not enter the tiger'south cave, you lot volition not catch its cub."

Meaning: You can't reach annihilation without taking risks, or "nothing ventured, cypher gained."

17. 猿も木から落ちる。

Translation: "Fifty-fifty monkeys fall from trees."

Meaning: A considerably more hilarious manner to say, "Everybody makes mistakes."

18. 蓼食う虫も好き好き

Translation: "In that location are fifty-fifty bugs that swallow knotweed."

Meaning: A roundabout way of maxim, "There's no accounting for taste" or "to each his own." Japanese knotweed is one of the world's worst invasive species.

19. 蛙の子は蛙。

Translation: "Child of a frog is a frog."

Pregnant: "Like begetter, like son." It is like to the Malagasy African proverb, "The kid of a rat is a rat."

20. 覆水盆に帰らず。

Translation: "Spilt water will not return to the tray."

Meaning: A manner of saying, "No utilize crying over spilled milk," but water fittingly seems like style less of a meaning loss than milk.

21. 知らぬが仏

Translation: "Not knowing is Buddha."

Significant: A more mystical style of saying "Ignorance is bliss." Bust this one out on the embankment or at a political party, trust me.

22. 猫に小判

Translation: "Gold coins to a cat."

Significant: Same as "pearls before swine," meaning to give a souvenir to someone who can't capeesh it.

Other idiomatic phrases that don't chronicle to anything in English

23. 井の中の蛙大海を知らず。

Translation: "A frog in a well does not know the smashing sea."

Significant: People brand judgments based on their own limited experiences with no knowledge of the world outside of those experiences.

24. 二兎を追う者は一兎をも得ず。

Translation: "One who chases after two hares won't catch even one."

Pregnant: If yous try to do two things at once, you will fail at both. Or, in the words of Ron Swanson, "Never half-donkey ii things. Whole-ass i thing."

25. 門前の小僧習わぬ経を読む。

Translation: "An apprentice well-nigh a temple will recite the scriptures untaught."

Meaning: Like maxim, "People are a product of their surround."

26. 七転び八起き

Translation: "Fall downwardly seven times, stand up up viii."

Meaning: This one rolls "if at outset you don't succeed" and "perseverance is improve than defeat" into one idiom.

27. 案ずるより産むが易し。

Translation: "Giving birth to a baby is easier than worrying most it."

Meaning: Stressing out virtually something is unremarkably worse than the thing you lot're stressing out about. And it certainly doesn't assistance.

28. 馬鹿は死ななきゃ治らない。

Translation: "Unless an idiot dies, he won't be cured."

Pregnant: This Japanese phrase is a harsh way of saying, "Simply decease volition cure a fool." Or possibly, "You lot tin't fix stupid."

29. 秋茄子は嫁に食わすな。

Translation: "Don't let your daughter-in-law eat your fall eggplants."

Meaning: Don't let yourself be taken advantage of.

thirty. 花より団子

Translation: "Dumplings rather than flowers."

Meaning: This one is used to refer to someone who prefers substance over style, a practical person. In that location'south that use of "flower" again.

A version of this article about Japanese quotes was previously published on May eighteen, 2014 past Alex Scola, and was updated on October 1, 2019 by Alex Bresler.

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