I'll list three awesome things in both English and Japanese, along with some explanations as to how we arrived upon these translations.
First of all, maybe we should address:
How to Say "Things That Are Awesome" in Japanese
As is the nature of translation, there are a multitude of possible translations for this. But here's what I went with:
Awesome Things = 最高なこと (saikou na koto)
最高 (saikou) means something like "maximum; the highest," but we can also use it to mean "the best".
When you're very excited about something great that happens, you can just say 最高！ (Saikou!), "(This is) the best!"
こと is "thing(s)," so literally we're saying "the best things" --> "awesome things."
List of Things That Are Awesome
最高なことのリスト
saikou na koto no risuto
List of things that are awesome
Seeing as how life is awesome, this list could go on forever, but I'll just give a sample for this post.
1) Spontaneous Dates / 急に決めたデート
I'm actually writing this post from a coffee shop in Sapporo. Today is one of the few Saturdays where I don't have to teach any English lessons in the morning.
So there I was--free time! And I knew that I wanted to work on this site, but then I looked at Rei and thought, "Let's go on a (coffee) date!" Thus, here we are.
Spontaneous dates are awesome.
急に決めたデートは最高だ！
kyuu ni kimeta deeto wa saikou da!
急に (kyuu ni) means "suddenly."
決めた (kimeta) means "decided."
デート (deeto) means, uh, yeah, "date."
は is wa and for our purposes here we can just call it a topic marker.
最高な (saikou na) means "the best," used as an adjective (because na).
だ (da) means "is," basically.
Suddenly + decided + date + wa + the best + is--> "Suddenly decided dates are the best.--> "Spontaneous dates are awesome."
2) Five-Hour Buffets / 5時間のビュッフェ
This one was Rei's idea, because she, like every human I've ever met, loves food.
Food is awesome.
Unlimited food is double awesome.
Five-hour buffets are therefore double awesome!
5時間のビュッフェは最高だ！
gojikan no byuffe wa saikou da!
5-hour buffets are awesome!
5時間 (gojikan), "five hours" is a noun, right? Noun phrase? Whatever. In English, we can put a dash between "Five" and "Hours" in order to make it into an adjective: "five-hour."
In Japanese, we can just put の (no) after the noun to make it modify the noun that follows. So...５時間のビュッフェ (gojikan no byuffe) = five-hour buffet...and it's awesome.
3) Fresh Bed Sheets / 干したばかりのシーツ
Warm, sleek. Scented.
You put your face on the pillow and think:
This doesn't feel like dead skin at all.
Indeed, no. This feels like awesome.
In English, we might say something like "Fresh sheets are awesome." Or "Freshly laundered sheets are the greatest!" But it's a little different in Japanese.
I was working with Rei on this one, and we decided to go with:
干したばかりのシーツは最高だ！
hoshita bakari no shiitu wa saikou da!
Literally: "Freshly hanged (out-to-dry) sheets are the best."
Hanging clothes (and sheets) in the sun to dry is the norm in Japan. So it makes sense that 干した / hoshita / "hang(-dried)" is used here.
ばかり / bakari, when it comes right after the plain past tense form of a verb, means "just ([verb-ed])."
So saying 干したばかり / hoshita bakari means "just hang-dried," means... "freshly laundered."
太陽の匂いするでしょ？
taiyou no nioi suru desho?
They smell like (the) sun, right?
...is what Rei said to me.
And I totally agree: That's awesome.
How to say thousands of things are awesome
Just go to NativShark and click "Study Now" every day. You'll get more and more of this language into your head.
Best of luck with your studies!
Niko
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