Sunday, April 25, 2010

安カワ

yasu-kawa, "cheap-cute". It is a short expression of 安くて、可愛い.

This word appeared on 日本産経新聞 (Oct 10, 2009). It is reported that this is a new trend for the youth, as under the current global economic difficulties, they no longer seek for spending a great amount of money for clothes. As an example, there is a color photo of a young boy waering a pair of boots which costs him some $1500, and all the rest clothes are all in the rang of $10 or $20. Accordingly this is a typical case of 一点豪華, or "one item only luxurious".

I have to say that it is beyond my knowledge. To my understanding, personal characters such as cuteness or kindness and a price tag for clothing belong to totally different categories. It never came cross my mind to apply money to meagure personality. After all, it is hard to imagine an "expensive cuteness" in the first place.