みずくさい

Japanese, Naturally...

By Mizue Sasaki

　　　　　　　　　水臭い

　A：あっ山田君。結婚したそうだね。水臭いな。一言も言ってくれないんだから。
　B：いや、心配かけると悪いと思ったんだ。

Mizu-kusai

A: Ah, Yamada-kun, kekkon shita soo da ne. Mizu-kusai na. Hitokoto mo itte kurenai n' da kara.
B: lya, shimpai kakeru to warui to omotta n' da.

A: Yamada, you got married I hear. You might have let me know, I thought. Very unfriendly.
B: Sorry, but Ijust didn't want to bother you, that's all.

* * *
To dilute beer with water will spoil it and provoke disgusted cries of "mizu-kusai." A close friend's behavior is also "mizu-kusai" when he behaves toward you with unexpected reserve or is less frank or open than usual.
Thus, someone who enters hospital but decides not to inform his friends for fear of bothering them is still acting in a way that is "mizu-kusai." His friends have a right to know and are bound to feel slighted and assume that he did not think them important enough to be told.

* * *

kekkon-marriage;...sdda-it issaid that... , I have
heard that... , apparently; hitokoto-"a word" (as in "he
didn't say a word about it to me"), "a few words" (as in
"I now call upon the president to say a few words"); shim-
pai o kakeru-to give cause for concern; mizu-water;
kusai-smells, stinks; mizu-kusai-reserved, cool, not
frank, not open, unfriendly (normally only used between
intimates).

Mizue Sasaki is a lecturer at Nihon University

ASAHI EVENING NEWS, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1985