Kaomoji

Kaomoji (顔文字; literally, "face mark") is the Japanese version of a emoticon, written vertically. See also Emoticon#Japanese_style

Basic examples

Note that for most of these, it is possible to use a period for a mouth (^.^) or leave out the mouth entirely (^^).

 ^_^                          smiley
 ~_~                          content
 `_^ or ^_~                   wink
 >_<                          angry, frustrated
 ^o^                          laughing maniacally
 ^o^v                         peace
 \^o^/                        very excited (raising hands into the air)
 -_-                          annoyed (trying to hide annoyance), also sleeping (eyes shut)
 ¬_¬                          focused at a particular person
 ;_; or ;];                   crying
 o_O or O_o                   confused surprise (one eye raised)
 >_0 or 0_<                   flinching, ouch!
 >_> or <_<                   yeah, right...
 ._.                          small - hiding, discreet, intimidated
 $_$                          thinking about money
 x_x                          dead or knocked out
 @_@                          dizzy
 T_T                          crying or not amused
 !_!                          crying
 u_u                          sad

Popular Examples (needs Japanese font)

one line kaomoji

(ﾟДﾟ)          "heh?" or "what are you saying?" or "surprised"
(ﾟДﾟ)y─┛~~                        smoking
( ﾟдﾟ)､                            vomits saliva
(屮ﾟДﾟ)屮                           "Come on" or "Come here"
 y=ｰ( ﾟдﾟ)･∵.                      shot my head
Σ(ﾟДﾟ；≡；ﾟдﾟ)                      confusion
Σ(||ﾟДﾟ)                           scary
Σ (ﾟДﾟ;）                          surprised
⊂(ﾟДﾟ,,⊂⌒｀つ
⊂⌒~⊃｡Д｡)⊃
（・∀・）                        "well" or "good"
（・Ａ・）                        "bad" or "not good"
(;´Д`)
ヽ(`Д´)ﾉ
( ´_ゝ｀)
[add message here]━━━━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━━━━!!!!! "shout [message]"

Happy Japanese Emoticon Examples

(●´∀｀●)                       relieved happy
(｀・ω・´)”                       innocent happy
∩( ・ω・)∩                        happy dog
(◕‿◕✿)                        cute happy
(ღ˘⌣˘ღ) ♫･*:.｡. .｡.:*･         happy with music

More Japanese Emoticons

• http://hexascii.com/japanese-emoticons

See also

• Kaoani