I’m playing this visual novel from 1998 called 街 〜運命の交差点〜. It’s a spiritual prequel to 428: Shibuya Scramble, my favorite visual novel I’ve ever played.
Because the main theme is life in Shibuya, the range of subject matter is extremely wide. This game is excellent reading practice if you’re not fluent and want to get put through your paces, and if you have the patience for 1998 levels of video game quality-of-life. I keep getting frustrated by how much I’ve forgotten, but that’s what learning looks like.
Anyway, there’s this one character who uses a ton of yojijukugo (四字熟語). In one chapter, by my count, he uses 82 (not counting one he made up, which I left out). Other characters use at least five more (I missed some of theirs). I wrote them down out of sheer curiosity. I thought they might interest you too:
千客万来、正真正銘、小人閑居、前代未聞、夜郎自大、
猿猴取月、大安吉日、敬天愛人、閑雲野鶴、白面書生、
貧者一灯、浅学非才、温故知新、臥薪嘗胆、孟母三遷、
変幻自在、一意専心、三位一体、一目瞭然、言語道断、
無知蒙昧、空前絶後、紆余曲折、驚天動地、刻苦勉励、
六根清浄、心頭滅却、一気呵成、読書百遍、熟読玩味、
孟母断機、断根枯葉、前途洋々、独立独歩、心機一転、
会者定離、射石飲羽、点滴穿石、一知半解、我田引水、
羽化登仙、傾蓋知己、清廉潔白、笑止千万、綱紀粛正、
門前雀羅、門前成市、勢利之交、事実無根、青天白日、
無欲無私、常住座臥、先祖伝来、無礼千万、天地無用、
鉄心石腸、頭寒足熱、奇々怪々、跳梁跋扈、魑魅魍魎、
閑話休題、有為転変、諸行無常、自由闊達、洒々落々、
下学上達、沈思黙考、悪事千里、風林火山、色即是空、
傍若無人、波瀾万丈、有象無象、一家団欒、千姿万能、
温清定省、四海兄弟、倒行逆施、光陰流水、他力本願、
空谷足温、一路平安、一日千秋、付和雷同、物情騒然、
文明開化、不言実行。
They don’t all appear in JMdict dictionaries for English speakers, but after searching ◯◯◯◯って四字熟語 several dozen times¹, I did find these two J↔J dictionaries: 四字熟語辞典オンライン; 四字熟語の百科辞典.
The game explains a lot of them too. Like 428: Shibuya Scramble, the text has copious footnotes and asides.
Just thought someone else might find this as interesting as I do. Enjoy!
¹ Not sure if this is obvious to new learners, but throwing some kana into your searches is a good way to filter out Chinese results.
