“Arigatō” means “thank you” in Japanese. The word arigatō came from arigatai. Today some people say arigatai as well as arigatō, but the original meaning of arigatai was just “hard to exist”. This is to say that receiving kindness is a blessing, and we should never regard someone’s kindness as an ordinary gesture. This is based on the Buddhist belief that for us to be alive on this earth at all is already miracle.
