It is one of my fundamental beliefs that any pastime can become an unhealthy obsession, and therefore a nerdly pursuit. One popular dictum has it that any given hobby has gone too far when you purchase special clothing for it - what this says about lingerie, I'm not sure. Still, if a thing's worth doing, it's worth overdoing, specializing to the nth degree, and arguing about the most abstruse, hair-splitting details - at least as some might see it.

In this spirit then, I offer the hentai dictionary. As the author of this fascinating glimpse into nihongo culture observes:

Why are Japanese so enthusiastic about giving names to every possible kinky act or

combination of acts? In general, Japanese are much more SINGLEMINDED and focused in

pursuit of their hobbies. For instance, if you're a good Japanese pervert, you don't 

want to walk into some porno store and just get any old panty-fetish DVD, you 

specifically want to get a DVD of panties being 'flossed' between the lady's pudenda 

in a sort of labial tug-of-war. And you want ALL the DVDs of this fetish EVER MADE. 

Since you don't want to spend 5 minutes explaining that to the drunk grandmother 

behind the counter, isn't it handy to be able to simply say, "kuikomi, please?"