Noun+の+adjective+Noun: エネルギー消費の大きい生き方 > > Those who expend great energy in their lives, I salute you.‌ I've seen this pattern used several times, Noun++adjective+Noun, but I've never really understood if the adjective is characterizing what comes before or what comes after, besides in this case it's a adjective. I would like to know when the adjective will characterize what is in front of you and what it will characterize in this pattern "Noun++adjective+Noun".

is modifying as a relative clause. This is a subject marker used in relative clauses, and it's interchangeable with . See: How does the work in ?

Imagine this "double-subject" sentence:

>
> As for this way of living, energy consumption is high.

From this, you can construct the following noun phrase with a relative clause:

> ****
> a way of living where energy consumption is high

Which is the same as:

> ****
> a way of living where energy consumption is high

Note that this person is saluting to the itself, not "you" or anyone. The given translation is not wrong as a free translation, though.

Here are some simpler examples. and are interchangeable.

*

a tall person (lit. a person whose height is high)
(cf. He is tall.)
*

an elephant with a long nose
*

a beautiful-minded person