Kakkoii (Cool) is a good word to describe this book. Constantine's painstaking research has produced a collection of words and phrases in the Japanese language used by everyone from teenagers to criminals to members of mainstream Japanese society when choosing to not be quite so stereotypically polite. Part academic treatise, part introduction to the colloquial side of the Japanese language, Japanese Street Slang offers something for linguists and Japanophiles alike. --Elephant Journal