Happy Birthday in Kanji

Baba, grandmother, had her 81st birthday on August 31st. This chocolate piece was on her cake. I posted one of these a long time ago. It is the most popular HTJ blog post. At least ten people a week do a google search to find out how to say "Happy Birthday" in Japanese.

In that picture, "Happy Birthday " is written in hiragana. Here, "Birthday" or otanjoubi is written in kanji on the first line. The second line omedetou is written in hiragana. The third line says "baba" in hiragana. It was all chocolate. Little Brother ate it. Big Sister was still in the States with Papa. (They usually share chocolate cake decorations.)

We all missed Papa's birthday cake today on September 1st. He was too jet-lagged to celebrate his birthday. His cake from 31 (Baskin Robbins) is in the freezer.


Check out Kids Web Japan for more information about the Japanese writing systems. The Kids Web Japan site is sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Kids Web Japan--language
Kids Web Japan--hiragana
Kids Web Japan--greeting cards

Cake Box

February is the month of birthdays at our house. I usually make the cakes, but this year we bought some cakes (slices) from a cake shop.

Check last year's post. Actually, that is the most popular post on this blog. Every day there are at least five people who do an internet search for "happy birthday in Japanese". It started last summer. I thought it was because of a baseball player's birthday. If you want to know how to write it in hiragana click on the label below. Let me know if your search for "happy birthday in Japanese" leads you here. Tell us why you want to know!

Happy Birthday in Japanese

February is a month of birthdays in our family. Four of us have birthdays this month. That's a lot of cake! Jiji passed away three years ago. Baba puts some of his favorite things on the altar downstairs on his birthday, but we don't have a cake for him anymore.

This is a chocolate decoration for a cake. If you order a cake from a shop, the baker writes the person's name on it for you. Nowadays, more people have ovens and make their own cakes. I bought this decoration in the food section of a department store. I used a frosting pen to write Little Brother's name on it. I'll post a picture of the pen later.

The letters on this decoration are in hiragana. In romaji, it is "otanjoubi omedetou". That means "Happy Birthday". The polite or formal way to say "Happy Birthday" is "otanjoubi omedetou gozaimasu". The Birthday song is sung here, too. In English with Japanese pronunciation, of course.

Note: You may notice that the link, Kids Web Japan, uses a double "oo" to show a long "o" sound. They are writing it phonetically. I have used romaji in my posts to transcribe the hiragana. So instead of otanjoobi I have written it otanjoubi. It is a long "o" sound.

If you are going to write a birthday card for a Japanese person and want to use Japanese but don't want to write hiragana then you should write it in romaji like this otanjoubi omedetou gozaimasu.

Check the link to Kids Web Japan below to see hiragana and its corresponding sounds.

Kids Web Japan--pronunciation