Japanese Winter Vocabulary: Snow, Cold, Food and Real Phrases

The four winter words to learn first

Start with these four. Fuyu is winter itself. Yuki is snow, with the verb furu for falling and tsumoru for piling up. Samui is the word you will say most, and kesa wa hiemasu ne is the line you will hear at every bus stop on a frosty morning.

Samui, tsumetai and hieru: three ways to be cold

English uses cold for everything. Japanese splits it three ways, and mixing them up is the most common winter mistake.

Tsumetai also means cold-hearted, as in tsumetai hito, a cold person, so be careful: anata wa tsumetai sounds like you are unkind, not that your hands are cold. Say te ga tsumetai instead.

Snow, ice and frost

Japanese has many snow words, but these are the ones you will hear on weather forecasts and in daily speech. Ōyuki (大雪) is heavy snowfall and appears in weather warnings. Shimo (霜) is frost, and shimobashira (霜柱) are the little columns of ice that push up out of the soil on cold mornings; children love stepping on them. Tsurara (つらら) are icicles.

Wind, darkness and the feeling of winter

Kogarashi (木枯らし) is the dry north wind that blows the last leaves off the trees in late autumn and early winter. Fuyubare (冬晴れ) is a clear, crisp winter day, very common on the Pacific side of Japan, where winters are sunny and dry while the Sea of Japan side gets heavy snow. The sun sets early, so people say hi ga mijikai, the days are short.

Hieshō (冷え性) is a word you will hear often: it describes someone whose hands and feet are always cold. It is a description of how a person is, used in everyday conversation and in adverts for socks and warming drinks.

Winter foods and drinks

Food is half of winter in Japan. Hot pot, nabe (鍋), shared from one pot on the table, is the classic winter dinner, with many regional and family versions. Convenience stores sell oden (おでん), simmered fishcakes, daikon and eggs in broth, from the counter, and steamed buns, nikuman (肉まん), from a heated case. Roasted sweet potatoes, yakiimo (焼き芋), are sold from trucks and in supermarkets. Mandarins, mikan, appear on every kotatsu.

Winter clothes

• コート kōto: a coat. ダウン daun or ダウンジャケット: a down jacket.
• マフラー mafurā: a scarf. Not a car part in Japanese.
• 手袋 tebukuro: gloves. ミトン miton: mittens.
• ニット帽 nittobō: a knitted hat.
• タイツ taitsu: tights, and 厚手の靴下 atsude no kutsushita: thick socks.
• 防寒着 bōkangi: warm, cold-weather clothing in general.

Clothes verbs depend on the body part: kōto o kiru for a coat, tebukuro o hameru or tebukuro o suru for gloves, mafurā o maku for a scarf you wrap, and bōshi o kaburu for a hat.

Common learner mistakes with winter words

Most winter mistakes come from translating English cold directly, or from using a word that is correct in the dictionary but odd in conversation. These are the ones Japanese teachers hear every year.

• Saying mizu ga samui for cold water. Objects you touch are tsumetai: mizu ga tsumetai.
• Saying anata wa tsumetai to mean your hands are cold. It sounds like you are calling the person cold-hearted. Say te ga tsumetai ne.
• Using yuki ga furimasu for snow that is falling right now. For the present moment, use yuki ga futte imasu.
• Saying kōri ga arimasu for an icy road. People describe the road instead: michi ga kōtte imasu or michi ga tsurutsuru desu.
• Calling a scarf sukāfu. A winter scarf is mafurā; sukāfu is a light fashion scarf.
• Saying kaze o motte imasu, I have a cold. The verb is hiku: kaze o hikimashita, I caught a cold.

Weather small talk in Japan usually ends with agreement, not information. When someone says samui desu ne, the natural reply is hontō ni samui desu ne, it really is, rather than a fact about the temperature.

Expressions people actually say, and a mini dialogue

These lines are the glue of winter conversation, from the office to the corner shop. The last one is the standard caring close for a message or email in winter.