A quiet breakdown of a small Japanese word—and what I felt while writing it.

🤔 A Japanese word that’s hard to translate: “うれしい”

I usually write in Japanese first,
then rebuild the piece in English.
It’s part of how I’m learning.
So if you're reading this—thank you. Truly.

One word I always struggle to translate is “うれしい” (ureshii).
It’s often taught as “happy.”
But that’s never quite enough.

So I started wondering—what is this word really made of?
Let’s break it down and see.

🤗 Some moments that feel like happiness

They all count as “うれしい” in Japanese—
but in English, each one seems to carry a different shade.
Here are some moments that stuck with me:

Take these two:
“Winning a prize” and “Being treated to dinner.”
Both are joyful moments—but the feeling is very different, isn’t it?

😏 Code time, just for fun

Breaking this down made me want to… code it.
So I put together a tiny script instead:

import random

# These mappings are originally defined in a separate JSON file (emotion_to_english.json)
emotion_to_english = {
    "connection": ["grateful", "aww, thanks!", "you remembered?!"],
    "surprise": ["delighted", "whoa!", "no way!", "heck yes!"]
}

# And this moment’s emotion components come from moment_to_emotions.json
moment = "Receiving a gift"
emotion_components = ["connection", "surprise"]

# Randomly select one English expression per emotion
english_outputs = [
    random.choice(emotion_to_english.get(e, ["happy? ish."]))
    for e in emotion_components
]

# Output the result
print(f"Moment: {moment}")
print(f"Emotion components: {emotion_components}")
print("English reactions:")
for reaction in english_outputs:
    print(f"- {reaction}")

Totally impractical, but oddly satisfying.
There’s something fun about mapping emotions like this.

☺️ Not a conclusion, just a little space

Maybe it's not a single word at all.
It might be a bundle of tiny reactions—some quiet, some loud.
There’s soft happiness, and jump-up-and-down happiness.
And when I try to translate it,
I don’t want to lose the shape of what it really felt like.

So lately, I’ve been asking myself:
“What kind of happy is this?”
And just holding that question
already feels a little happy.

I guess I don’t write to explain things perfectly—
I just hope the warmth comes through.
That might be my real motivation for writing.
(WillVector, maybe? lol)

And if something I wrote actually reaches you...
then yeah—
I’d probably say “うれしい.”
(With a smile, of course.)

🫣 A small extra: the JSON behind it all

(For those curious about how it all connects—here’s the quiet logic behind it.)

// moment_to_emotions.json
{
  "Posting an article on Dev.to": ["self-expression", "achievement"],
  "Receiving a gift": ["connection", "surprise"],
  "Passing an exam": ["achievement", "self-trust"],
  "Winning a prize": ["luck", "excitement"],
  "Being treated to dinner": ["kindness", "comfort"]
}

// emotion_to_english.json
{
  "self-expression": ["fulfilled", "seen", "this is so me!"],
  "achievement": ["proud", "accomplished", "nailed it."],
  "self-trust": ["relieved", "I knew I could do it.", "finally."],
  "connection": ["grateful", "aww, thanks!", "you remembered?!"],
  "surprise": ["delighted", "whoa!", "no way!", "wait—what?"],
  "luck": ["lucky", "can't believe it!", "right place, right time"],
  "excitement": ["excited", "let's gooo!", "🔥"],
  "kindness": ["touched", "that was sweet", "🥺"],
  "comfort": ["that was so thoughtful", "cozy", "I needed that."]
}