Gacharic Spin, like many groups in Japan, should be hugely successful and in the public eye. They nonetheless ply their massive talent to a small but dedicated fan base. I’ve heard them described as ‘Like the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, except not shit’, which whilst a little harsh, is accurate. Their lineup has changed a bit over the years. They’re currently a six-piece ensemble with an eclectic, genre-agnostic discography. I can barely walk and breathe at the same time, so when I see a group with as much talent as this crew has, I can’t help but be amazed.
The first single of their album ‘W’ (synonymous with ‘double’ in Japanese) is a catchy (ahaha :| ) tune called カチカチ山 — kachikachi yama. Beyond being a good song in its own right, it’s actually a really good resource for Japanese language learners. It uses colloquial language, references Japanese folk tales and is a beautifully made window into parts of Japanese working culture you tend not to see in textbooks, delving into the societal pressures at work (and post-work). Despite that, it’s message is irrepressibly upbeat and positive.
Diving straight into the lyrics:
こちらカチカチ山在住！！
— kochira kachikachi yama zaijuu — these are the people of Kachikachi mountain
在住 — zaijuu — residing
ガチガチ頭 上司のたぬきさん
カチカチ — kachikachi — an onomatopeic word that has a few different meanings, but in this case means ‘obstinate’ or ‘inflexible’. The song title plays on a folk tale where kachikachi is the sound of a crackling fire.
頭 — atama — head
上司 — joushi — boss
たぬき — tanuki — racoon dog.
Describing someone as being like a tanuki is a reference to the tanuki in the folk tale ‘kachi kachi yama’. It characterises someone as beign both stubborn and also completely untrustworthy. An english-language equivalent might be saying ‘that person is a hard-nosed, back-stabbing weasel’.
Tanuki joushi (たぬき上司) is a common phrase in Japanese. If someone tells you their boss is one of these, the boss is likely a stabby ladder-climber who licks up and kicks down.
その思考終わったコンテンツ
思考 — shikou — thinking
終わった — owatta — finished
コンテンツ — contents
Takes creative license with grammar, but effectively ‘I’m done with that sort of thinking’
脳みそ柔軟体操したら？不協和音流れちゃってるよ WOW!
脳みそ — noumiso — brains
柔軟体操 — juunantaisou— calisthenics/exercises
したら？ — shitara — ending a sentence with the causal conditional form (~tara) and making it a question means ‘why don’t you do X’ or ‘and what would happen if you did X?’, with the implication that this is an obvious thing that ought to have occurred to the listener already.
不協和音 — fukyouwaon — discord
流れちゃってるよ — nagarechatteru yo — nagareru is the verb ‘to flow’. Using the ‘chatte’ verb conjugation means the action is occurring unintentionally, or is out of one’s control (and that this is regrettable). The final WOW matches beautifully with the ‘waon’ of fukyouwaon.
いつの時代だって あぁ。。変わらねぇーんだ
いつの時代 — itsu no jidai — in any era
だって — datte — in this case datte emphasises the thing that precedes it. It can mean different things in other contexts (because, even, or also)
変わらねぇーんだ — kawarane~nda — this is very colloquial and casual. The polite way to say it would be 変わらないなのです (kawaranai na no desu). The ‘nda’ ending is used when explaining how something is.
Stringing it all together, you get ‘In any era, nothing ever changes’.
あっ！あの人のことねってあなた
あの人のこと — ano hito no koto — about that person
ねって — nette — used as a sentence ender when seeking affirmation from the listener. Using it assumes one has a causal and friendly relationship with the listener. In this case, Angie (Gacharic Spin’s mic performer — front girl in any other band) ‘puts on’ a voice — it’s someone else saying it to her, and it sounds wheedling or ingratiating.
あなた — anata — you (generally used with people who are familiar with one another)
This is the voice of someone asking ‘Hey, you’re talking about that other person, right?’ in a way that’s a bit desperate to maintain an assumed, friendly relationship. Angie flatly shoots that down with her next line.
いやいやアンタのことですよ
いやいや — iyaiya — a very informal interjection to negate something just said.
アンタのこと — anta no koto — anta is a contraction of ‘anata’ and is generally used by women more than men (who would be more likely to say ‘omae’). It’s generally used when you’re not completely happy with the person you’re referring to. Anyone who has seen Evangelion has heard the phrase ‘anta baka!?’ (are you stupid?) at least once. So anta no koto is ‘about you’.
ですよ — desu yo — Stating something with emphasis and conviction.
So in direct response to the ingratiating question preceding, you get a very blunt ‘nah nah I’m talking about you’.
お～っと始まる派閥争い 猿蟹合戦隠れよーと
お～っと — oh-tto — ‘oops’. It’s the sort of thing a parent might say to a toddler when they fall down.
始まる — hajimaru — start
Effectively, ‘something suddenly starting’
派閥争い — habatsu arasoi — factional dispute/strife
All together you get something like ‘factional strife suddenly kicking off’.
猿蟹合戦 — saru (monkey) kani (crab) gassen (battle) — another folk tale of the monkey and the crab. The tl;dr is that crab was chilling out. Monkey steals her shit and kills her for no good reason, so her kids gather a bunch of other animals to exact bloody retribution. Anyone who isn’t a monkey lives happily ever after.
隠れよーと — kakureyo~to — kakureru is ‘to hide’. Adding ‘yo-’ makes it a suggested course of action (either for oneself or inclusive of the listener). Let’s do X, or ‘I should X’. The ‘to’ at the end expresses intention. So either ‘we should go hide’ or ‘I’m going to go hide’.
主に悩みの種人間関係
主に — omo ni — mainly primarily
悩みの種 — nayami no tane — literally ‘the seed of one’s troubles’
人間関係 — ningen kankei — human relationships
The source of ones’s troubles is human relationships.
同じ土俵に立つなってさ
同じ — onaji — same
土俵 — dohyou — sumo ring
立つな — tatsu-na — ending a verb with ‘na’ is a very strong command to not do something.
“Don’t stand in the same ring” is an idiomatic expression in Japanese that means ‘don’t compete on (their) terms’. It’s similar in meaning to ‘even if you win, you still lose’, or ‘don’t stoop to their level’ or maybe even ‘never wrestle with a pig’.
ってさ — ~tte sa — is an informal sentence ending that tends to mean the sentence is a thought or opinion, or possibly an approximate translation of something that was said (outside of the current conversation).
Don’t stand (me) in the same ring as that stuff. In other words — steer clear of the aforementioned factional twattery.
あぁカニの気持ちもわかる…
カニの気持ち — kani no kimochi — How the crab feels
わかる… — wakaru — I understand
うーん…でもやり返しちゃだめ。
うーん — uun — yeah
でも — but
やり返しちゃだめ — yarikae shicha dame. Yarikaesu means to retaliate. ‘~cha dame’ is a contraction of a verb’s te form plus は — ‘~te wa’ followed by ‘dame’, which means no good or forbidden.
Hmm, yeah but you mustn’t retaliate.
もう少し大人になってよ
もう少し — mou sukoshi- a little bit more
大人 — otona — adult
になってよ —ni natte yo — become
You need to grow up a bit
見ざる言わざる聞かざるベスト！！
I love this as a callback reference to our earlier monkey. This refers to the three wise monkeys (see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil). さる (saru) means ‘monkey’, so this is an idiomatic play on words:
見ざる — mizaru — don’t see
言わざる — iwazaru — don’t speak
聞かざる — kikazaru — don’t hear
ベスト！！ — best
see (no evil), speak (no evil), hear (no evil) is best!
Sounds like a fun day at work.
キリがないよね 溢れんばかり不満は
キリがないよね — kiri ga nai yo ne — there’s no limit (cutoff)
溢れんばかり — afurenbakari — a contraction of afureru (to overflow) and bakari, which in this case means ongoing or constant
不満 — fuman — discontent
There’s no end in sight is there, to the overflowing discontent?
ネガティブオーラとポイポイしちゃって
ネガティブオーラ — negatibu o-ra — you don’t need me to tell you this is ‘negative aura’
ポイポイしちゃって — poipoi shichatte — poipoi means to discard. Shichatte is a contraction of ‘shite shimau’, to do something to completion.
(completely) Throw away that negative aura.
腹の下から叫んでみたらいいじゃん
腹の下 — hara no shita — below your belly; the equivalent of ‘from the pit of your stomach’
から — kara — from
叫んでみたら — sakende mitara — A compound of two verbs sakebu — cry out or shout, and miru — to try and do
いいじゃん — ii jan — a contraction of ii dewa nai no desu and means ‘it’s fine’ in a sort of cajoling, reassuring manner.
Why not try shouting from the pit of your stomach?
モード切り替えて今日も頑張りますか！
モード — mode
切り替えて — kiri kaete — change up, switch over
今日 — kyou — today
頑張りますか！ — ganbarimasu ka — let’s do our best, shall we?
An irrepressively positive attitude to life if I’ve ever seen one. Of course no story is compelling without some sort of drama…
カチカチ山の～たぬきさん～から
カチカチ山 — kachikachi yama
たぬきさん — Mr. (or Ms.) Tanuki
から — from
From Mr. Tanuki of Kachikachi mountain
一杯いいじゃん♪付き合って～
一杯 — ippai — one glass, one drink
いいじゃん (we’ve seen this one)
付き合って — tsuki atte — come along, come out, keep company
So then, putting everything from the last 2 lines together you get:
Mr. Tanuki of Kachikachi mountain says ‘Come out for a drink. One glass won’t hurt.’
In many Japanese workplaces, when the boss asks you out for drinks, it’s not really optional. Certainly not optional if you value your career prospects. At the end of a long day it might be the last possible thing you want to do, but hey, that’s how it works.
Incidentally, the first time I heard this, it was maddeningly familar. I couldn’t pick why until I realised the rhythm is very similar to まっくろくろすけ出ておいでー。出ないと目玉をほじくるぞー ‘makkuro kurosuke dete oide. Denai to medama wo hojikuru zo’, which fans of Studio Ghibli’s Totoro will instantly recognise. (It means ‘come out, come out, soot sprite. If you don’t, I’ll poke you in the eyeball).
Returning to the song, Angie has a question.
はいはい、一つ確認させて頂きたいが
はいはい — hai hai — yes yes
一つ — hitotsu — one thing
確認 — kakunin — check
させて頂きたい — sasete itadakitai — sasete means ‘allow me to’ and itadakitai means ‘have the honour of receiving’. Combined, it means ‘have the honour of being allowed to do’
のですが — no desu ga — used when politely explaining or making an excuse.
Ah well, yes would you mind doing me the courtesy of clarifying maybe just one thing for me — if you imagine Hugh Grant at his most foppish trying to get this out, you’ll have a grasp the tone. This is fairly typical of the honorific language style that folks on the factory floor are expected to use with a ‘superior’.
それって残業手当出ます？って心の中でしか言えない現実
それって — sore-tte — that thing (you said, you asked for)
残業手当 — zangyou te-ate — overtime pay
出ます？ — demasu — hand out, give out
This is a very straightforward and abrupt way of saying ‘yeah, is there overtime with that?’, which is quite funny given the obsequiously polite preamble.
って — tte — ‘to say’ (also he/she/you say)
心の中 — kokoro no naka — inside your heart/mind
しか言えない — shika ienai — can only say
現実 — genjitsu — reality
‘Ah, yes, there’s just one thing I’d love if you could please clarify for me — do I get overtime for this?’ The reality is this is something you can only say in your mind.
Unfortunately, going out for drinks with the boss is generally not a thing you get overtime for. You can already see where this night is going, but let us press on.
終電なんかいいだろ～って ベロベロ手で触んな
終電 — shuden — the last train of the night
なんか — nanka — something like
いいだろ — ii daro — fine, right? (Quite emphatic. Frequently used by men)
～って — tte — you say
ベロベロな手 — berobero na te — drunken hands
触んな — sawanna — a contraction of sawaru na — don’t touch (me)
You say ‘the last train or whatever’s fine yeah?’. Don’t touch me with your drunken hands.
酔った抱っこしておんぶするわけねーだろ！蹴り飛ばす
酔った勢い — yotta ikioi — drunken state
抱っこしておんぶ — dakko shite ombu — give someone a piggyback ride
するわけねーsuru wake ne~ — colloquialism of suru wake nai — that’s impossible to do, that’s not happening
だろ！ — daro — right! (a forceful emphasis)
蹴り飛ばす — keri tobasu — literally ‘flying kick’.
Given the forcefulness of the language, you could translate this as: There’s no way I’m carrying you in your shit state. I’ll kick your arse.
あっ寝ちゃった？寝テロかよ～置いて帰るぜ！
あっ寝ちゃった？ — ah, nechatta — Oh, you fell asleep?
寝テロかよ — ne-tero kayo — That’s sleep terrorism, isn’t it? netero can mean ‘go back to sleep’, but the katakana use of tero is a contraction of terrorism.
置いて帰るぜ！ — oite kaeru ze — I’m leaving you here and going
I love this. It describes the level of frustration perfectly. Oh great. Falling asleep now? That’s sleep terrorism.
Sleep terrorism is that thing you do when you know someone wants to leave, but you want them to stay, so you guilt trip them into sticking around past their last train to look after your drunken, slumbering corpulence until it’s too late, after which you stage a miraculous recovery, giving you several more hours to achieve … whatever it was you were planning to do I guess. Yay!
一生寝てろーーーーー！！
一生 — isshou — your whole life.
寝てろ — netero — go back to sleep
Go to sleep for your entire life
おっさーん！おばさーん！お疲れみなさーん！！
おっさーん — ossan — a contraction of ‘ojisan’ — uncle — used to refer to guys who are middle-aged
さーん — obasan — aunt — same as above except for women
お疲れ — otsukare — (informal) thanks for your hard work. Often said at the end of the working day as you leave. Normally with a more formal ‘otsukare-sama deshita’.
みなさーん — minasan — everyone
This is the equivalent of someone saying ‘ok boys and girls, I’m out. See you!’ Or possibly ‘ok you old farts, I’m out’.
Back to our upbeat chorus before heading to a bridge and breakdown in which Angie has an epiphany.
ヒーロー軍団が鬼退治したように
ヒーロー — hero
軍団 — gundan — army
鬼退治 — onitaiji — vanquishing/exterminating the monsters
したように — shita yo-u ni — just like
Just like the armies of monster-vanquishing heroes
たぬき上司退治でめでたしめでたしって言いたいなぁ
たぬき上司 — tanuki joushi — arsehole boss
退治 — taiji — vanquish
めでたしめでたし — medetashi medetashi — living happily ever after
って言いたいなぁ — tte itai naaaa — I want to be able to say
I wish I could say I’ve vanquished my arsehole boss.
って、、、いやちょっと待てよ！？
って、、、いや — tte iya — hang on, no
ちょっと待てよ！？ — chotto matte yo — wait a sec
鬼がいたからこそ一寸法師強くなって
鬼がいたから — oni ga itara — because there was a demon
こそ — koso — places emphasis on the reason or thing. In this case, because there was a demon…
一寸法師 — issun boushi —A very short protagonist of yet another folk tale
強くなって — tsuyokunatte — becomes stronger
Issun Boushi became stronger because there was a demon.
力太郎愛する人とマッチング
力太郎 — chikarataro — Another protagonist, another tale
愛する人 — ai suru hito — someone (he) loves
とマッチング — to machingu — was matched with
桃太郎は一生もんのマブダチ出来たよね？
桃太郎 — momotaro — peach boy
一生もん — isshou mon — Something that lasts a lifetime
マブダチ — mabutachi — true friend
出来た — dekita — did, was able to do
Momotaro made lifelong friends
鬼派？桃派？どっちが正義？今この時代に議論してみ？
鬼派？ — oni ha — team demon?
桃派？ — momo ha — team momotaro?
どっちが正義？ — docchi ga seigi? — which one is more righteous?
今 — ima — now
この時代に — kono jidai ni — in this era
議論してみ？ — giron shitemi(ru)? Why don’t we try and discuss?
Why don’t we discuss it now, in this day and age?
アンチ桃太郎降臨 どんぶらこ～どんぶらこ～
アンチ桃太郎降臨 — anti-momotaro kourin — The advent of anti-Momotaro-ism
どんぶらこ～どんぶらこ～ — donburako donburako — (the sound of tumbling)
噂まみれ！どれがホント？
噂まみれ！ — uwasa mimare — Rumours abound
どれがホント？ — docchi ga honto? — Which ones are true?
「桃太郎暴行事件！！
暴行 — boukou — violence, assault
事件 — jiken — inicident, case, affair
An act of violence by Momotaro!!
本当は鬼が被害者だった！？」
本当 — hontou — truth
被害者 — higaisha — victim
hontou wa oni ga higaisha datta? — Was the demon the victim all along?
鬼だって生活も守りたいものだってあるもんね
鬼 — oni — demon/ogre
だって — datte — even (has a few other functions; ‘as well’, ‘they said’,
生活 — seikatsu — life
守りたいもの — mamoritai mono — something one wants to protect
だって — datte (again) — in this place it means ‘as well’
あるもんね — aru mon ne — mon is a contraction of ‘mono’, which is another one whose meaning depends on the context. In this case it indicates the speaker is reasoning about something.
Even demons have lives and things they want to protect, right?
SNS炎上 SOS病んじゃって やってみるか心の治療
SNS — Social Networking Services
炎上 — enjou — blowing up
病んじゃって — yanjatte — getting sick, suffering from
やってみるか — yatte miru ka? — shall I/we give it a try?
心の治療 — kokoro no jiryou — mental health care/treatment
Blowing up on SNS. SOS I’m getting sick from it. Why not give mental health care a go?
Having reached that little crescendo, we’re suddenly outside for some quiet introspection.
思い返せば私が悪かったとこもあったよなぁ
思い返せば — omoikaeseba — If I cast my mind back
私が悪かった — I was wrong/bad
とこ — toko — thing, event, aspect
あった — atta — had
If I think back, there were times when I was at fault too, you know.
その存在がその経験が自分を成長させる宝箱
その存在 — sono sonzai — the existence of that
その経験 — sono keiken — that experience
自分を成長させる — jibun wo seichou saseru — saseru means to ‘allow to do’. Jibun — self, seichou — grow up, develop. When combined: ‘allowed me to grow (up)’
宝箱 — takara bako — treasure box
The existence of that experience is a treasure box that has allowed me to grow.
カチカチ山のたぬきさん ごめんなさーい！
カチカチ山のたぬきさん — kachikachi yama no tanukisan — Mr. Tanuki from Kachikachi mountain
ごめんなさーい！ — gomen nasai — I’m sorry!
And we’re back to the chorus that takes us to our outro
金金 金太郎 きんたろ やったろ！
金金 金太郎 — kin kin kintarou — chucking in another random Taro here for a bit of fun
きんたろ — kintaro
やったろ！ — yattaro — you did it!
Tomozo pipes in to say
そこ桃太郎じゃねーんwww
soko Momotaro jane~n da! — Shouldn’t that be Momotaro? The trailing www resembles ハハハ, so it’s a shorthand way to indicate laughter
and finally we bookend with the same line we kicked off with こちらカチカチ山在住！！
There’s a whole bunch of stuff packed into this song, but if as a Japanese learner you can wrap your head around it and follow along in real time, then you’ll have picked up a lot of what you’ll need to be proficient in the language. Regardless, the song is fun to listen to.