KAOMOJI – Japanese Smileys

Today I’m showing a list of my favorite 顔文字 (kaomoji) – or japanese smileys.
In America we use really boring ones like : ) ; ) but the Japanese have really elaborate ones. And when you enter certain words, certain smileys will come up. Most Japanese cellphones have user customizable dictionaries, so if you want certain words to convert to certain smileys, you can program it that way. As an iPhone user, I don’t have a customizable dictionary. So the best I’ve been able to do is make lists in the Notes section and copy and paste them when I want to use them. It’s a real pain in the ass, actually. But I have 5 pages of my favorites, which I will just re-post here. (I’m heading out the door to eat yakiniku in a few minutes, so I needed something quick for today’s blog entry.)

(this page assumes your computer supports japanese characters)

顔文字 Kamoji is combined of two words
顔 かお kao   “face”
文字 もじ moji  “letters, writing”
some of them are self-apparent, but i’ll include a few explanations…

ｍ（.丁.）ｍ
this is samurai doing a formal bow on the floor 土下座, you can see his top knot between his two eyes （丁髷）.
.

( -_-)凸
this is me giving you the finger.

[Kaomoji(^_^) --- Japanese emoticons (^ 0 ^ )/]

Many Japanese people love to use emoticons, kaomoji, on their cell phones or computers!
Because emoticons are so popular, they are used in manga too.
It means that most of the readers understand the kaomoji but the people outside of Japan might be confused with the strange faces.
Here are the examples.
Just know that kaomoji are horizontal!
Smile(^_^), Laugh(^ o ^), Wink(^_-), Shy(*^_^*), Blushed(#^_^#), Cry(T_T), Cry(T o T), Lost(*_*),Confused(@_@), Sorry(prostrating) m( _ _ )m.