Here are Japanese adjectives that are used to describe tastes:
amai - sweet
suppai - sour
shoppai - salty
karai - spicy
nigai - bitter
shibui - taste of a fruit, kaki*
umai - tastes good
mazui - tastes bad
With the
taste character as a suffix, the above words become a noun for the tastes (i.e. amami,
umami, etc.). The scientific community has borrowed the word "umami" to describe the taste of MSG, which was first discovered and studied in
Japan by Ajinomoto, inc.
*the fruit, kaki, has a rising
tone, while the clam, kaki, has a dropping tone. These two words almost sound the same to the untrained ear. Shibui is a word specially reserved for this fruit, and you gotta try it to know what it tastes like. In Japan, shibui also is a slang that means "
cool".