金魚のフン
きんぎょ　の　フン　＝　 This refers to the annoying hangers-on to a beautiful or important person. Literally “gold fish excrement” hanging on… 爆笑

競争は激しいけど,
きょうしょう　は　はげしい　けど。。。　＝　”The competition is fierce but….”

漢字は中国から来ました
かんじ　は　ちゅうごく　から　きました　＝　”Kanji came from China”

大人になったら板前になりたい
おとな　に　なったら、　いたまえ　に　なりたい　＝　”When I grow up, I want to become a chef”

カレーが飛び切りうまい
カレー　が　とびきり　うまい　＝　”Curry is extremely delicious”

一 本の歯を失うと、
いっぽん　の　は　を　うしなう　と。。。　＝　”After I lost a tooth…”

肉と魚と、どちらが好き？
にく　と　さかな　と、　どちら　が　すき？　＝　”Meat or fish…which do you like?”
The meat in this case would refer to something like pork, beef, etc… fish is given its own category.

育てたスイカを収穫しました
そだてた　スイカ　を　しゅうかく　しました = “The raised/reared watermelon was harvested.” I think I found this one in a Japanese gardening blog or something.

帰宅した。疲れた
きたく　した。　つかれた = “I returned home. I’ve become tired.”

鯨がくしゃみをした
くじら　が　くしゃみ　を　した = “The whale sneezed.” I found this one is a picture book. I think it’s strange that I’ve never seen the Japanese word for “sneeze” until now.

雪が舞っている朝
ゆき　が　まって　いる　あさ　＝　”The morning where the snow is fluttering about.” This one is kind of neat as it’s another use of 舞う [まう」　which mean’s “dance.” You can picture the snow dancing down to earth from the clouds.

全然眠れやしない
ぜんぜん　ねむれ　やしない = “I can’t sleep at all.”
**Grammar Point** Adding やしない　to the masu form of a verb makes that verb emphatically negative. The dictionary says this is a colloquial usage.

眼鏡を外す
めがね　を　はずす　＝　”to take off one’s glasses.”

ウサギが葉っぱを食べている
ウサギ　が　はっぱ　を　たべて　いる　”the rabbit is eating a leaf.” This one was an interesting find for me because I’ve only see leaf written as ”葉”before this.

鍵がなかったので。。。
かぎ　が　なかった　ので。。。　＝　”Because I didn’t have my key…”

野菜をたくさん食べることが大切です
やさい　を　たくさん　たべる　こと　が　たいせつ　です。　＝　”Eating a lot of vegetables is important.”

絵空事ばかりだ
えそらごと　ばかり　だ　＝　”It’s just a pipe-dream.” I like this one because it’s a good demonstration of how cool the kanji can be. The kanji 絵 means “picture.” 空　means “sky.” 事　means “thing.” So put it together and it would literally be “The picture-in-the-sky-thing.” Kind of like how we say “pie in the sky.”

体重が１０キロ減った
たいじゅう　が　じゅう　キロ　へった　＝　”(My) body weight decreased by 10 kilos.” or simply “I lost 10 kilos.”

何故そこまで姉に拘るのか？
なぜ　そこまで　あね　に　こだわる　の　か　＝　”Why are you obsessed over my older sister to that extent?”

私はへこたれない
わたし　は　へこたれない　＝　”I won’t lose heart.”

オキアミ油はコレステロール値を下げますか？
オキアミ　ゆ　は　コレステロール　ち　を　さげます　か？＝　”Does Krill oil lower cholesterol levels?”

昔の日本食が健康に良い
むかし　の　にほんしょく　が　けんこう　に　よい　＝　”In the old days, Japanese food was good for your health.”

飲みながら話し合った
のみ　ながら　はなしあった　＝　”While drinking, we talked together.”

エビでタイを釣る
エビ　で　タイ　を　つる　＝　This is an idiom meaning “To risk a little to gain a lot.” Literally, it means “to catch a sea bream with a shrimp/prawn.”

生きてるままのエビを食べた
いきてる　まま　の　エビ　を　たべた　＝　”(someone) Ate a shrimp/prawn while it was alive.”

科学の進歩は素晴らしい
かがく　の　しんぽ　は　すばらしい　＝　”The progress of science is magnificent.”

立派な医者になった
りっぱな　いしゃ　に　なった　＝　”(someone) became a splendid doctor”

浴びるように酒を飲む
あびる　ように　さけ　を　のむ　＝ “to drink like a fish” if you were to translate by idiom. A direct translation would be something like “to drink like your bathing in it.”

あなたの名字は何ですか
あなた　の　みょうじ　は　なん　です　か　＝　”What is you surname?” For some reason I’ve been learning Japanese for about a year now and this was the first time I’ve seen the word “myouji.” I guessed from the kanji that it would be like, “What are the characters that compose your name?”….wrong! 笑

蝶のように舞、蜂のように刺す！
ちょう　の　よう　に　まい、　はち　の　よう　に　さす！　＝　”Dance like a butterfly, sting like a bee!” This was a fun one for me to learn, and as such, it stuck into my memory almost instantly. Leave a comment if you know of any fun phrases/sayings like this.

日本語で表示する
にほんご　で　ひょうじ　する　＝　”Display in Japanese. ” This one is pretty useful for the internet. You’ll often see this on pages where they have Japanese language as an option. When you see it, just click and you’ll be viewing the site in Japanese language.

喧騒から逃れる旅
けんそう　から　のがれる　たび　＝　 “A trip to escape from the hustle and bustle-ish noise”

瞬間の判断を誤った
しゅんかん　の　はんだん　を　あやまった　”With my split-second decision, I made a mistake.”

迂闊だった！
うかつ　だった！　”I was careless!”

今日の呟き
きょう　の　つぶやき　＝　”Today’s mutterings.” Sort of like a twitter post. I see people use this title for some of their youtube ramblings in japanese. They mostly just spell it out in hiragana, but I like to at first learn it in kanji just in case so I can understand it both ways.

ケータイを洗濯してしまった
けーたい　を　せんたく　して　しまった　＝　I messed up and washed my cellphone in the laundry.

いい響きだ
いい　ひびき　だ　＝　”it’s a good sound”or ” It has a good sound.” etc, you get the idea.

鳥を飼う
とり　を　かう　＝　to keep a bird as a pet

辞書で検索する
じしょ　で　けんさく　する　＝　”to look up a word via dictionary.” You’ll see 検索　on most search buttons.

押し寿司を作った
おしずし　を　つくった　＝　I made sushi-rice

鯛とヒラメの姿造り
タイ　と　ヒラメ　の　すがたづくり　＝　sea bream and flounder whole-fish sashimi

魚肉ソーセージを買った
ぎょにく　ソーセージ　を　かった　＝　I bought some fish meat sausage.

ごちそうさまでした = Phrase said after meals. Basically means “thanks for a great meal.”