More Ways to Cross the Water

The following terms refer to the act of crossing water:

渡河 (toka: river crossing)     to cross (a body of water) + river

If someone said this to me, I’m sure I would hear the toka as meaning “among other things; such things as.”

海を渡る (umi o wataru: to cross the ocean (i.e., to go to or come from overseas))     sea + to cross (a body of water)

Remove the hiragana and switch to on-yomi for this word:

渡海 (tokai: crossing the sea)     sea + to cross (a body of water)

If you cross the sea, you’ll end up in another country (unless your country has had the foresight to colonize distant islands). To describe your travels abroad, just take 渡 and attach the country kanji of choice:

渡米 (tobei: going to the United States)
     to go overseas + United States
渡仏 (tofutsu: going to France)     to go overseas + France
渡英 (toei: going to England)     to go overseas + England

Nice and concise! Given the famous Japanese xenophobia, you might think this algorithm wouldn’t apply to foreigners’ trips to Japan, but it does!

渡日 (tonichi: coming to Japan (of non-Japanese))
     to go overseas + Japan

A native speaker says that 訪日 (hōnichi: to visit + Japan) is a more common synonym for this. But 訪日 usually means just a visit, whereas 渡日 may mean either a visit or immigration.

In another break from the usual xenophobia, I’ve found a non-pejorative word for overseas visitors:

渡来人 (toraijin: people from overseas, especially from China and Korea, who settled in early Japan and introduced Continental culture to the Japanese)
     to cross (a body of water) + to come to + people

It’s another doozy in terms of specificity!

Here’s the root of this word:

渡来 (torai: visit; introduction; importation)
     to cross (a body of water) + to come to

仏教は５３８年に日本に渡来した。
Bukkyō wa gohyaku-sanjū-hachi-nen ni Nihon ni torai shita.
Buddhism was introduced into Japan in 538.

This seems like such a useful sentence to know.

仏教 (Bukkyō: Buddhism)
     Buddhism + religion

This is the second time we’re seeing 仏 on this page. Earlier, it had the on-yomi of FUTSU and meant “France.” (Two Fs.) Here it’s BUTSU and means “Buddhism.” (Two Bs.) So much can change in such a short space!

年 (-nen: suffix indicating year)
日本 (Nihon: Japan)     Japan + origin

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