Welcome to the Nihongo Lesson feature. We strive to give you useful manga-based Japanese language tips and maybe even a glimpse into the translation process. This week's lesson will look into some terms that are relevant this time of year. It's common to get sick in the winter, and unfortunately TEAM JUMP is not immune. This page can't cure sickness, but it can give you a nice injection of Japanese knowledge!

BYOUKI (びょうき)

BYOUKI means "sickness" or "disease." This word covers a whole variety of illnesses, both physical and mental. And if you're Usopp, you can even use it for imaginary diseases by adding BYOU to whatever you can come up with. Poor Usopp suffers from "Can't Go on the Island" disease pretty frequently. Luckily, Luffy has a sickness with the opposite symptoms!

KAZE (かぜ)

KAZE means "wind" but it also means "a cold." The disease version of KAZE is actually the combination of the characters for "wind" and "evil." In English we say "to catch a cold," while in Japanese they say "to catch the wind." Slightly different but basically the same thing. Try not to catch any evil winds this winter!

HANAMIZU (はなみず)

HANAMIZU combines the characters for "nose" and "water" to describe the mucus that drips out of your nose when you catch a cold. While having a bout of HANAMIZU is nothing abnormal, you've probably never had it as bad as Toriko when he suffered from Sundoriko allergy!

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