Waist-shake

From "I Can Only Love You For One Day":
"If you're wondering why I would hesistate to give him my email, well, exactly what I feared would happen did - the first few weeks, the only mails I recieved from him were either "Penis!!!" (in katakana English of course, so "Penisu!!!") or "Waist-shake!!!" "Waist-shake" being the word they invented for sexual intercourse. I'll have to explain that one some other time."

The Story:

One day I visited the soccer club at the Ghetto School. Actually, no, come to think of it, I was walking around, and they stopped me. First, they asked me what "waist" was in English. I told them. They then asked me what "shake" was, so I told them that as well. They then combined it into "waist-shake!" and started thrusting their crotches forward to simulate sexual intercourse.

....Um....no. Granted, we have a lot of words for the bump 'n grind, knockin da boots, the horizontal tango (etc...) but "waist-shake" is most definitely not one of them.

(For the record, my favorite phrase is "hitting it".)

I told them we didn't say that in English, but this actually seemed to work better for them, as they were thrilled that they'd just come up with a new English word for sexual intercourse.

They then started asking me about Harry Potter (the latest movie had just come out in Japan at that time). "Hermione's pretty cute" they said, winking at me and giving me the 'ol "Eh? Eh?" elbow nudge. I said she was cute...for a fourteen year old. But to me she was just a kid, nothing more. "Yeah," they said, "but she's just the right age for us!" Along with more of the winking and nudging. "Waist-shake?" I innocently and stupidly asked. This absolutely set them OFF, as they started pelvic-thrusting their way across the soccer field. I figured this was the best time to make my escape before any more damage was done.

Unfortunately, it became a fad or sorts for a while. The boys could say "waist-shake!" and nobody, Japanese or English speaker, knew what they were talking about. I'd see them sitting together in groups, and pointing at different girls and saying "Waist-shake? Oh yes, yes! Yes, waist-shake!" One day I was in class with the big-headed boyfriend teacher. She was going around asking students some simple questions. She came to one of the soccer boys. "What do you do afterschool?" She asks. The boy stands up and exclaims "waist-shake!" while doing the pelvic thrust. She, of course, had no idea what this meant, but in her curiousity, she looked at me, and while imitating the pelvic thrust motion, asked "waist-shake"?

...I honestly don't know how long it took the soccer boys in that class to stop laughing. They may actually still be laughing about it now.

The teacher really wanted to know what was so funny, and I just didn't have the heart to tell her she'd just unknowingly propositioned me for sex.

Luckily, the "waist-shake" craze has died down, but if it ever pops up in the urban dictionary or Wikipedia, we'll know who to blame. ...Not me.