Reading japanese with a smile

Reading japanese with a smile

Leva & ejtv

Title XY BIB GES 2 PLEO HeRRER

3% 7\Y [El Bankoku the country of Ban / HIẾ 2 to

aim for, to intend to go to / 2% connection / #tB

shain company employee / #£403¢5% muchimomai igno-

rance

ale H As the story explains, 2Ÿ 3⁄ E] is a misinterpretatlon of 2Ÿ t2 “Bangkok.” / The slanted line (` ) above the character [J in the title on p 130 indicates emphasis See

also 5a / HFRS modifies #LA / 1* is an abbrevia-

tion for DRI Y a Y, that is, a relative or friend who

can provide special assistance or access A 7 #419 is an

employee who got her job through a personal introduc

tion instead of the usual hiring process (A typical 2 #4

EB might be the child of a former classmate of the com- pany president) / #640 muchi means “no knowledge” and SBE momai “darkness; 1 ignorance ” deen se Bk thus means

“the depths of ignorance.’

The “Country of Ban”

pansha \arge publishing company (see 5b) / #Jš#‡ 4 works; is employed / Ki Kz2 Miss K / '£2» includ- ing (Miss K) / FIFHORXPERLA doki no josei yonin four women hired at the same time / Att H4FH nyasha gonen-me fifth year after entering the company / #04 LT kinen shite in honor of / = 2 kono ham this spring /

— #8 '< isho ni together / HEYKME{T kaigai nokd overseas

trip / Bt & 32 C72 heikaku o tateta made a plan

aU LC ow BLA TS hinen suru / V Cử: se C2

put on high-class airs / [F]EY doki means “same period

of time,” so K#lEDMHAOAMMA means “four

women, including Miss K, who were hired at the same

time.”

Since large Japanese companies usually hire new employ- ees only once a year, in April, the people hired at the same time tend to think of themselves as a group And

because there is no seniorjunior (7G senpai, {22E kohat)

tension to color their relations, as there is with people hired earlier or later, [=]#4 employees often find it easier

to socialize with each other than with other coworkers / Because Miss K is twenty-four and just starting her fifth year of work, she and the other three women were proba- bly hired immediately after they completed two years of junior college This would traditionally make them —Az

HX ippanshoku, the term used for support workers, espe-

cially women, who are not in line for promotion In con-

trast, KAATHRK sqgdshoku are career-track employees who, in large companies, are almost invariably graduates of four- year colleges In recent years, more women have been at-

IS

The “Country of Ban” The “Country of Ban”

tending four-year colleges and looking for #8 jobs [8 32 32H yokajitsu the next day / AON IC kaisha no but they still do not always receive equal treatment in hịp kaeri ni on her way home from work / WHV.7: nozoita

travel agency / XS (2 masa ni exactly; precisely / HEABHY 7% risĩteki na ideal / H4% nittei schedule / 438 kingaku amount of money / 7 — tour / 5121 mitsuke she

found / & ) xT provisionally; for the time being /

RTC dokudan de on her own judgment / #*#Ủ # Ô‡L C4372 yoyaku o irete oita she went ahead and made a

aa (HALL kobochi candidate locations / V¥4\*4 various/ Ff / = ireru [ ww 5 ¢

Hit: deta were mentioned; were proposed / HỆ nist the [Pi WOT: modifies HATER, so NỀv3/2J4{PUE

ri Thailand / £34 CLC to in koto de (see ỈỈ, below) / i vation only provisionally, pending consultation with her

$ anld & & XL hanashi wa matomatia they decided; they | coworkers / The final 4V*7:, translated above as “went

C reached a conclusion i ahead,” indicates an action taken with an eye to future de-

Cc

i 2 Thailand is called ở 4 in Japanese, while the Thai language

ti is 4¥ 4 at Taigo / The phrase &v>4 CET refers to fF] 7¢

¬— H something that has been previously mentioned It usually : mmw Dey nites & y4Ex3 :

8 Ẻ does not need to be translated into English i 7H hiẾj— Ẩ Y l8 # R2} 2t, KRRt+ |

Sẽ H ‹ Kf lẻ, Aol b 1z v›7+J€ÔT{CEHJE RS 3254 yokuasa the next morning / HHO—-ADYR

nakama no hitori no Waijo Miss Y, one of the group / Fi, 2*\} 2 mikakeru notice; catch sight of / S 2% < imme diately / @O{# sono ken that matter / EFL 72 hokoku shita reported

Bis REL © METS bokoku sum

The “Country of Ban” The “Country of Ban”

c= fhÏl]j means “a companion, friend, or colleague (cither ip

dividually or as a group).” / The & after LITZ js the | 78

sequential € (see lj) / € fF here refers to the fact that TF ides aN BB ee Fee et S

Miss K had made a tour reservation The word # h ị YRS BR © Ly BEVGEREO Bil FIAT often used to refer to previously discussed matters, | BAK

f f° tạ HI) BA igai na kao a surprised face / REVERE harui

| 7 Ệ ¡am slight criicilsm / Bl-ƒˆ- cđÙ¿ tone of voice / 3Ä*Ð

: [v\v324*#2729 +, ME Icy + œ%7— là pot 3 TC komete with; including / #27: ith; i , 3a kotaeta answered

LRALCeorine’, všvšb + Rị bu; Lee FS / ROT w ADS komen / BR72 ow TY |

konjatta signed up for / VV £22 tt wa yo ne that’s

ENB TS means “to make a surprised face” or

“to look surprised.” #4} means “unexpected,” and the reason for the surprise is that something unexpected has occurred

okay, isn’t it?

Bh bok whHS/APLAAC ROK w HLAACL kok w HLA mishtkomu / UE or w L¥35

2 When referring to a person’s behavior, HF usually sug-

gests selfishness or disregard for the feelings of others

When it refers to the speaker’s own actions, the word con- 7

apology for what she has done is reinforced by the L¥

272 suffix (see 3h and 41) This apology is little more

than a ritual, though Miss K in fact thinks she has done a

good thing by making the reservation, and she is expecting

The “Country of Ban”

4272 Bankoku ja nakatta no Wasn't it Bangkok?

The “Country of Ban”

% 2 is a shortened version of 3 %, an interjection that, depending on the situation and intonation, can indicate joy, sorrow, anger, agreement, or hesitation Here it shows

surprise As in 4g, the final small > in Š 2 indicates a

sudden halting of the vocal chords It is not pronounced Ất” Here and in 7j (3.— 2), this > is similar to an ex clamation point / The conjunction #Š2C is used in speech when asserting a fact that contradicts another per- son’s statement or assumption

| zE The (© 34 ni suru pattern means “to decide on; to

| choose.” / In informal women’s speech, a sentence ending

with the particle © may be either an explanation or 4

question depending on the intonation Explanatory ©

ko ri sentences have falling intonation, while questions have ris | e#ZzvšØ ? ] Tre J "

s ing intonation In writing, it is impossible to determine j

ma ti ¡th al cl “Her explana Nữ Z— 2 2 (shows surprise or disbelief) / 7 2A Laos /

im © on or a question without contextual clues Here, the ? IDO koku ga tuku ends in kokx (“country”) /

lồ c shows unambiguously that Z 4 ic LKO is a question, DH kuni no namae the name of a country / U # % RCO gs and that context tells the reader that "XY I7 Leeey VD iz nai no isn’t iB

it 272 is a question as well (Question marks are nor EỄ 1 gnÐ1 jf? mally used in Japanese only in cases of possible ambigu HB) Loe vw ClEEY & wa nai ww CHD

er ity If the sentence is clearly a question—because it endsin [Ey ; `

io © 2, uses an interrogative pronoun, etc—then the question |= *~ > ‘8 pronounced with a prolonged rising tone This

ig s mark is omitted.) eae B 1 f = interjection is often used in conversation by young

|| í 7i 7, translate It into English In wrtting, 23⁄ 1ð È v3 l3

| ị ves might be rendered with quotation marks: “Bangkok.” /

HỘ 'làoö.7#'2C2lvazltv 40 > 1} cà @ The ellipsis dots in quotation marks [+++ J indicate

i Ạ [Ro 7 7 4288/51) J @ _ that the listener, Miss K, is so stunned she is unable to

ae 2-2 et Huh! / > T but / BH shuto capital city

The “Country of Ban” L The “Country of Ban”

: S< Genuine country names that end in EI kokw include x | 1

: wakoku “Republic of Chile,” and the official name of E2 A cei be Le we 4 : ZA S BOLI LS |

: pan, HAE] Nibonkoku or Nipponkoku Ja | ele A ORAS In A3 I†/#it‡£H

I

lỆ | 7k li UAT ORHALB Ic doki nyasha no josei shain ni

| š | 04tx3 3 ` £ BAD = | among the female employees who joined the company at

lỆ ` > wy “ta” Liêu ị RULER FA enko satyésha a person hired through a per-

712/31 Èvš2 BỊ, 2#%9 '2‡yBH” Etat c KL sonal connccion / HŠ ¿z2 rumor / K4KoRA \|

SÈ 2` 1S '€® 2o = 2220 2220) 2¿ wás true

| EU 7¬; =7:

| ae HENMCCOHA umarete kono kata ever since she waa , _

1 born / —-†DH4#ERM nijayo nenkan twenty-four years / 7% ct i means nearly the same thing as 2% in 7a—a per- i!

i rt Y & v3] Ban to iu kuni a country called Ban / 2 ¥ : sonal connection, whether through blood, marriage, Or ac- tl

ma utagawanakatta believed and didn’t doubt B= RAVE saiyasha is “hire.” / — AE WRBGRABOVS a

H a 2 È v3 Hồ bitoni dake enko satyésha ga ira to in uwasa means DỊ

3 By ENT w LENS xa / fẦÙ TC w RCS @ “the rumor that only one person was hired through a Ie

ae shinjiru | REID Te PD > 72 wwe RED EVs ew HED utagan = personal connection.” / The A in RYHOKAPF isa Cy

pf ok “Kẻ » ® contraction of the explanatory In other words, the a

I i 7 +2? kono kata means sincc after “rẻ #Lc9? l fact that there was one hiree-Miss Y—who got her job iy

He © is a set phrase that means all one's life; ever since one = through a connection explains why Miss Y is working in st

8 S was born.” / The È before fa UT is the quoting È,im = this company even though she is so ignorant / This sen-

ie é dicating what Miss Y believed / Another version of the = tence is in parentheses because it indicates Miss K’s

pe = phrase {§ UC RED %& A> 72 appears in 3m | thoughts

The “Country of Ban”

By Tee U7: ww HEE TS kakushin sum / T2272 w 78 : Brix he Rke 23 an OE z

4 s£ (2 LT isa literary version of (< or C “in or at (a place

or time).” / The characters # and % in BUS mean

“truth” and “falsehood,” respectively In some contexts, &

4% can be translated as “truth or falsehood,” though here

just “truth” is better

> _ Large Japanese companies, which often have their pick of The Rew Boy ; Urine Tierapy

new hires, screen prospective employees in several ways, : AND His ẾIRIFRIEND S DEPRESSION One is by choosing only those who have graduated from i:

high-ranked universities, thus relying on the rigor of the university entrance exams to weed out the poorly edu- cated and the less diligent Another is by subjecting ap- plicants to exams and interviews The tests given by

companies are usually not as tough as college entrance exams, and they often focus on more practical, common-

sense knowledge, such as current events and geography

And a third is to use recommendations from the personal contacts of important people in the company While this

method is sometimes as effective as the others—a recom- mender can lose face if the introduced employee turns

out to be a dud—it does not always work, as shown here

by the case of Miss Y

& M-ko (24), an office worker at an architectural firm in

@ Kanagawa, now has a boyfriend, O (28), who is as

Ệ handsome as K6ji Kikkawa Although he went to a sec-

# ond-rate university, he’s 184 centimeters tall, works at a

f real estate company run by his father, and makes over

ff eight million yen a year He drives both a BMW and a

§ Mitsubishi Pajero

On Valentine’s Day, M-ko bought 30,000 yen worth

i of chocolate just for O, and they went on a double date

# to Yokohama with another couple That night, the two

# couples checked into a hotel with a view of the sea

While O was taking a shower, M-ko got a telephone

Ỉ call from her girlfriend in the next room

“Hey, according to my boyfriend, O drinks his own

: piss every morning He says it’s good for his health.”

“Yuck!” M-ko said “Are you serious?”

The Rich Bay’s Urine Therapy

MES AEB Be OBIE BRT oy

CBA

+ When M-ko nervously asked O about it, he replied

‘confidently, “It has cured my colds and tonsillitis and thay fever There’s nothing dirty about urine; it has the

lame components as sweat and tears You should try

drinking it, too.”

“No kissing! No way!”

twears briefs when he sleeps

m After stewing over it for three days, M-ko laid down

B three rules for O:

(2) Do not try to get me to drink urine

(3) Always gargle after drinking urine, and then brush your teeth for at least twenty minutes

Every weekend, the handsome, gentle, and rich O in-

i vites M-ko out to expensive restaurants But M-ko just tịch depressed

“That wine he’s drinking now will get warmed up in

A his body, and then tomorrow morning he’s going to

B drink i it again.”

Whenever she thinks about it, the gourmet food

E turns bitter in her mouth

yautsu depression; melancholy

st bijob* ¥ is the extra polite version of BYj7 be

A obotchan, which is either a polite term for another per-

son’s son or a derisive term for a rich, coddled young

man who lacks common sense / Just as 5 ¥A is a

child’stanguage version of the polite suffix SA (6c), 5

+ ¥ is the child’s version of the even politer suffix š #,

/ As explained in this story, adherents of #4 £fj+ be

lieve that drinking or gargling one’s own urine in the

morning is beneficial to one’s health in various ways A few Japanese doctors advocate the practice, though it is

not widely followed in Japan / The characters in the

phrase PAREHEHE mean “drinkurinehealth-method.” /

A AERA may be either a boyfriend or a girlfriend Unlike

BA aijin “lover,” the word 2A does not imply—

though it does not rule out—sexual intimacy / If you like

to impress people with your ability to write difficult kanji, the # in £% is a good one to learn (It is also written

#8 Learn both versions and impress people even more.)

» ent Lee so HosweLe Ae TAL

Heal FE Bat SAO DOL, MESA (<I

23 ‡L jutaku sekkei gaisha housing design company / O L

dera female office worker (see 5a) / FUISE AIM Kikkawa Koji-ni resembling K6ji Kikkawa / 2X A2°C% 7: koibito |

ga dekita (she) acquired a boyfriend

Chk we CHA

FINSLA] is a handsome pop singer and actor He was at the height of his popularity in the early 1220, when this Ị story was written / The suffix 1 mi means “resembling;

looking like.” / The v› 3 in O##k\`) modifes 2 2 a

so OM EW 4 FINSAMWORA means “a boyfriend a named O who looks like K6ji Kikkawa.” / The suffix @ al kun is explained in 3b F

ities

IST

#5 KF daigaku university / © % (adds emphasis) / —i%

nity second-rate / 44e shinché height / —/\ Wr vF hyaku hachiji yon senchi 184 centimeters (60") / & chichi

his father / REET 4 keiei suru runs, manages / 7H)RE

4xtt fudésan gaisha real-estate company / #)% tsutome works; is employed / 4F:X menshaé annual income / /\G 7H pappyaku man en eight million yen / 9 kow œ ceeds

Hd sr BD A tsutomeru

This sentence describes three things: O’s education, his height, and his income and job While M-ko regards the second and third—184 centimeters and eight million yen per year from his father’s company—as good, the first—-O’s graduation from a second-rate university—is not so favor- able The particle © € singles out A“F as different from

the other two elements / The particle ® after 4C is an al- ternative form of the subject particle 2°, so ROME T

SABES means “the real-estate company that his fa- ther manages,” with OEE FS being a relative clause that modifies 7°) ze 234

This sentence assumed that the reader was in tune with

the Japanese zeitgeist of the early 1990s At that time,

Japanese women were said to demand three things from prospective husbands: Bi“#HE ké-gakureki “high educa- tional background,” MA koshinché “high height,” and

H], though, =i vanished from the public consciousness within a few years

8d

Ht kuruma cars [ XY 2.0 Pzzm / ŸÊV32†} Cvx2

tsukatwakete ira uses one or the other as appropriate

REV 4PUF T ue JEWS IT SD teukaiwakern The % “also” after i indicates that O's cars are another example of his wealth and attractiveness to M-ko / Pajero

is the name of a line of four-wheel-drive vehicles made by

Mitsubishi Motors In some countries they are marketed under the name Montero or Shogun

7

zR⁄# 3 J a sincere present of chocolate / HEL ya

shi prepared / KREG onna tomodachi girlfriend / A»

Ziv couple / HEE Yokohama city south of Tokyo, in

Kanagawa Prefecture / Z7) 7”— + double date FRRL w ARTS yd un / Lew FS

“HRI is a friend who happens to be a girl or wo- man No romantic connection is implied / In Japanese, the meaning of #7 7 7JV is restricted to a man and wo-

man who are lovers or married to each other The word

is not normally used in the more general sense of “pair.”

On Valentine’s Day, Japanese women give presents of chocolate to men There are two major categories of these chocolate presents: #227 3 2 giri choko “obligatory chocolate,” which includes inexpensive chocolate candies

that female office workers give to male coworkers or

bosses in whom they have no romantic interest, and RY

F321 “favorite’s chocolate,” which is a more expensive

chocolate gift given to an actual or prospective lover The

*ARY in YF aS is an abbreviation of Rat honmei

Originally a sports term for a competitor that is expected

to come in first in a race, 4x fF can also refer to the per-

son who is the leading candidate for some position In

this story, O is M-ko’s leading candidate for her future

“White Day” in Japan On that day, men who received Valentine presents are supposed to reciprocate with gifts

of white chocolate or other treats

8f

%D# sono yoru that night / ~#1O Ay PW futakumi

no kappuru the two couples / #OK25 47 umi no miern hotern a hotel with a view of the sea/ # + Z

~ checked in

The in #95424 is an alternative to the potential particle 2°, so #OFLAZAS ATW literally means “a hotel from which the sea can be seen.” / With the omit-

ted verb added, this sentence would end Fryv77YL

YVTI-CBOTWHSLE shawa o abite iu toki while

taking a shower / BEOBKE tonari no heya the room next door / ai2*% > 7 denwa ga atta there was a tele- phone call

15

£ 1 ¥7—*XIGUZ is the usual expression for “to take a shower.” #04 means “to be drenched with a large amount of water or other liquid.”

Ẽä 22% hey, listen! / #104 watashi no kare my boyfriend /

BAX HL LZ: kikidashita extracted information by asking,

found out / 4:34 maiasa every morning / SERED 72% (z kenkoé no tame ni for health’s sake / BLO urine / 8#

ACHAT nonde ‘mn’ datte (is said to) drink

& BX lve w= SWS kkidan / KACTS w KA

CUS oe fkts nomu

s£ 2% is used in conversation to get another person's at- tention or to change the subject to something that the speaker considers important / Here {% means “boy-

friend.” Similarly, 72% kanojo sometimes means “girl-

friend.” / 3 U2 is the word that children learn for

“urine” A more formal word is “JM shoben The medical term is FR myo / The A after PASH LZ% and KAT

% is a contraction of the explanatory and nominalizing

2 / The ending > T is used to report what someone

else has said It is a contraction of & V+

|B WP gett yuck! gross! / YY really? are you serious?

| & The interjection !J> indicates the speaker’s disgust (The small > is explained in 4g.) An initial (7 seems to con- note stomach upset in Japanese Similar words include '

% “vomit,” (72 438 “burp,” and the onomatopoetic 17%

\F%, which describes the sound of retching / VY is a shortened, slangy version of Hii mayime “serious; not

Pay BA we BRS hotaern

| z+ The reduplicated 2x76: is an adverb derived from the verb 2&4 osoru “to fear.” / The & after I< is the se quential & / 72238) means “full.” / The subject of

BeAr: s O3

17

5i JE\IR kaze a cold; the flu / FAVE Aentoen tonsllitls / †E

Ey iE kafunshd pollen allergy; hay fever / < 7S by means

of this / i> 7¢ naotta were cured

B) ork wx 18S naom

2 JE\3B can refer to both the common cold and the flu /

The tonsils are called FaKHR Aentosen / The verb BZ

is written 744 when it means “to recover from an ill

ness.” When it means “to be repaired; to be restored,” it

A, or # kun) or 272 “you.” / AA is the brusque

imperative form of &4 / When used after the gerund

(te) form, 44 means “to try,” so KA CAS is “to try drinking.” / The final £ reinforces O’s recommendation

that M-ko try urine therapy

HAEHEZA IR hisu sareso ni natta was about to

be kissed (by O) / #&#J\“ z7 z2 absolutely / 4 -V !

no! I refuse! / tA (2 katakuna ni stubbornly / #2472

kobanda refused

HASH *^Aš‡2 © FATA / hook w &

B / TEAR w thts kobamu

4 V indicates strong dislike or refusal It is also written

v**?, #É, or ER / The % in the adjectival noun (na ad- jective) 12% katakuna is part of the stem, so another %

is needed when the word precedes a noun: tA 7% 7 BREE

katakuna na taido “stubborn behavior.”

159

# J — IN Y SERIE nopan kenkohé no-underpants therapy /

HO AN TUT toniinete ite has adopted / FES & % (244 neru toki ni wa when he goes to bed / V2 % always /

Pas & OUT Ze» shitagi o tsukenai doesn’t wear underwear

B) MOANT w MV ANS tonirem / WT w WS /

DITZV> ww DIFS

ck The SY in ? —2Ý⁄ 1s an abbreviatlon of 2Ÿ}⁄*»

“underpants” or 7S“ 7 4 — “panties.”

XX Practitioners of 7 —7\ 7 EEE believe that sleeping

without any restrictions on the nether regions is beneficial

sa =H] mikka kan for three days / (iA 72 nayanda wor-

ried; was unable to decide / # sue after / =OMAK

mittsu no joken three conditions / ti U7: dashita presented

<= K refers to the end of an action or period of time, so =

HA 7258 means “after brooding over it for three

E nijuppun jo for more than twenty minutes / Ba % BB <

ha o migaku brush your teeth

Lh) BIR LAV ww BIRT S ins sure / Bh LV e& hws

© susumeru/ VAN ww ABWUTA ygai sura The sentencefinal = & indicates a strong command or prohibition It is often used in signs: 7 VI #&W#‡b‡£v›

< & tabako 0 sewanai koto “No Smoking.” / The pronun- ciation of —+-4} is discussed in 1m

By Pot k< we Polly we PolZLV kako wi

/ US w& BLY yasashii / HoT w HI sason

+t Both Polk < and HL < are adverbial forms, which are used to link series of adjectives Both of these words

and BEIH5O modify OF / PoOTELV’ is a short ened form of #224 L\%, which means “having a nice, refined appearance” or, more colloquially, “good- looking” or “cool.” It is also pronounced 232 2 V%V or

ị BB OVE now / KRAL74 Y nonda wain the wine he

drank / AC tainai de inside his body / HE 0 atata- mari is becoming warmer / {& kare he / HHA OH ashita

no asa tomorrow morning / ¥ 7: again / &t nomu will

drink

Ï ‡# The subject of kts is 48, that is, OF

8t CMURT SERVIC, CHEESE SPOT |

The Rich Boy’s Urine Therapy

no longer enjoy the delicious food because she keeps thinking about what will happen to the wine that her

boyfriend is drinking

10) TIF WE MTF b IDEs EDI

His First Cau Girt Was

THE Gree Next Door

H #2028 Eo TW

HRRORE-ACMCHSZ TERRORS SAI

LOR [RFWVICHRLET] OEVIFIVA

Hd

LHEERLES SAIL, SHRM) LIT

BOF eA LDIBor, IOP MIC, M260 FT

SEIS SALMA EE KEES SAME

166

His Fest Cus Gree Was

THE Girt Next Door

S (59) is deputy mayor of Town A on the Sea of

f Okhotsk in Hokkaido At the beginning of June, he went on his first business trip to Tokyo in six months

H Usually the evenings of his business trips are spent

; briefing his Diet representative’s secretary on the latest

i goingson in his district, but today the secretarys sched-

E ule was full

Now S was able to spend the evening in Tokyo

l alone Late that night, his brain foggy with drink, he

f tried to decide what to do In his hand was something

he had never seen in Town A: a flyer advertising a call

| girl service “She'll come to your hotel,” the ad said

“Okay, no one will ever find out,” he thought, and

| he picked up the telephone

He had just taken a shower and sobered up a bit

| when the doorbell rang Smiling, he slowly opened the door But then his eyes widened The woman was M-ko,

| the daughter of his neighbor back in the government , employee housing complex where he lives in Town A

167

The Girl Next Door

€Cv32 Ả,#Ÿ | oe

Pork, [BUSADIEARA CLES

[BREADSOAKO RAS BoLEL

DILP SRE OPH Ce RUD”

[BITSAIM AE LEV THIS + |

BP, OPS, Rom MOMAHER,

The Girl Next Door

“You're supposed to be a junior at a women’s univer-

| sity What are you doing in a place like this?”

M-ko was unfazed by S’s scolding

“You called for me, didn’t you?” she replied

That put S on the defensive

“Your father must be sending you an allowance,” he said “Shouldn’t you be behaving better?”

He lectured her for nearly an hour, but to no effect

“You want to pay for some more time?” M-ko asked

He couldn’t tell if she was joking or serious

Though S had done nothing, he paid the 30,000 yen

as agreed, with no extension

“I won't tell your wife,” M-ko said as she left, still

with a stubborn expression

Why? Since when? How did she get into this? Un-

able to find out anything from her and, even worse, _ caught in the act himself; § returned home, his head, it

' seemed to him, having grown even grayer

169

i 4) C hajimete for the first time / WEA 72 yonda called /

zk7 b VIBE hotetoru 76 hotel call girl / BROWE tonari no

musume the neighbor's daughter

IEA, 72 wwe ISS yobu

aT bv is a blend of the words 7 JV “hotel” and f

23 Torukoburo “Turkish bath.” A 7 b VB is a prostitute who plies her trade at hotels / The phrase #

DO TIFA FEAT b WIE indicates that this is the first time the protagonist of this story has hired a call girl

The word } JV 2 )8\4 formerly referred to bathhouses with private rooms where women would provide massages

and sexual services to male customers In the 1980s, after

the Turkish government and others complained that gen-

uine Turkish baths are not brothels, the bathhouse indus-

try abandoned the term and coined the word /- 77

⁄ F “soapland” to replace it It is not known whether soap manufacturers have objected / Although Japan en-

acted an antiprostitution law in 1956, the measure is in- consistently enforced and many forms of prostitution continue to be practiced openly

j tAEL

t 312t‡U

3zR— 9 # ft Obstsuku Kai Sea of Okhotsk / (21 L 7

ni men shita facing onto / AGi##i18 Hokkaidd Hokkaido /

ART E machi Town A / BAT joyaku deputy mayor / 7X

Fi rokugatsu hajime at the beginning of June / *F4F 3: hantoshiburi for the first time in half a year / EX HHDR Tokyo shutcho business trip to Tokyo / Waite

dekaketa went; set out for

Hole te WSS mensuru / URIs œ t?*Ù} 2

dekakeru

AAR-Y 7 HEC L?z and dt#ei both modify AFT,

“Town A in Hokkaido, facing onto the Sea of Okhotsk.”

/ HY is the official designation for a local governmental area smaller than a TH shi “city” and larger than a #Ÿ mura “village.” The kanji BJ is read either abd or mach, with some towns preferring one reading and other towns the other / A B)7% is a civil servant who serves as assis- tant to the mayor of a city or town / “PAE OW Hii means “his first business trip to Tokyo in half a

”

year

he receives / = HIE kono hi wa on this day / HE sử

tei schedule / #4 ¥ > CV*72 ssumatte ita was full

B mkOC w HES suman / Whew wd

ck VOSOMRORIL means “Usually in the evening on his business trips.” / Here the word #870 refers to the lo- cation of a political power base, so HUT ORL means “a Diet member elected from S’s district.” / {ti

+ usually refers to a member of the #RiE Shagiin

“House of Representatives,” the lower and more powerful

house in the Japanese Diet / HU refers to gathering in-

formation for a particular purpose Wtf *5e't S means roughly “to be interviewed.” In this case, the Diet mem- bers secretary would presumably ask S about the political situation in his boss’s home district and perhaps put pres- sure on S to provide political support

what to do

Bp WORDS S ACT sygom / 32o72 x2 / Bok

œ HE) you / WATE @ Wt nayamu z+ The first half of this sentence means “S, who was now

able to spend the evening in Tokyo by himself.” He seems to have spent the evening getting drunk / itr here means “to be unable to make a decision.”

12

BB #l7li & ni wa in his hand / RACE ORV min

koto no nai never seen (in Town A)/ [ARF IVICHEL

‡ |] hotera ni shutcho shimasu “We'll send (a woman) to your hotel.” / EY 7 FF advertising leaflet for a sex

business

s£ The word EY “pink” is a euphemism for sex-related matters A EY 7 BRIE] pinku eiga is a pornographic movie / A +7 ¥ is typically a one-page advertising

flyer The word is also written #5 L / FIZIZ modifies

#4, the principal verb of this sentence In other words,

S was holding the leaflet in his hand / The phrases 5%

ZEDZW and [AFT IWICMGRL ET] O both modi-

EY IFFY,

+ A V⁄ 7771 b trpieally a small printed notice adver- tising a call girl service, massage parlor, or other sex busi- ness EYYF7Y are often posted next to public telephones in nightlife areas or left in apartment building mailboxes

| Of

L‡) =

(la, SHB eNO Liz

The Girl Next Door

& %V> nokoranai will not remain / Heike LA i o

heshita decided / #23 juwaki telephone handset / FX 0) EWP7: toriageta picked up

By ORV ww KD nokom /RLK we RTS kesum /

2£ People say 4 L when they have decided to do or start something new or difficult / The & before R&HRLZ

S SA is the quoting +, indicating what S said to him- self when he decided to call the prostitution service

By EU w BUS abim / GO72 © GOS samem / Wo

?2 se HỆ 2 77

zt Wgv`2922 means “to sober up.” f2 1s an intran-

sitive verb meaning “to cool off” In this context, it may also be written ‘B54 4 or HBO 4

175

ITC -PAWMAC with a smile / @ < 9 slowly / F7 XA

\t7: doa o aketa opened the door / H&trv*7z me o muita his eyes widened

By bly 7 ow BAITS akem / v72 re SỈ| € muku 2£ The idiom 8 x#) < me o muku means “to open one’s

eyes in surprise or anger.” The verb #] < means “to

peel,” but H 2:8) < has a different meaning from the English “to keep one’s eyes peeled.”

+o

VALeIAG eeNoTH zac

| beARoKOK,

3B XE josei the woman / ft øø to live; to reside / 2Ÿ

#8 komuin civil servant / (E26 jataku housing / BEAR tonari musume neighbor's daughter

z= 4% AES is a housing complex for public employees

Government agencies and private companies in Japan

often provide low-cost housing for their employees / The suffix 4A after M reflects both S’s acquaintance

with her and their difference in age See also 6c / The ex-

planatory M in MFbXYA LR OKO tells why S's

The Girl Next Door

% The words KH, & onna, and tA fujin all mean

“woman.” Of these, ZTE is the most neutral In certain contexts, 2 onna might suggest “mistress” or “prostitute,”

while ## A fin is avoided by some feminists and others for its old-fashioned, patronizing air In many expressions, though, 2 and Ht A are still the only choices, such as # D-F onna no ko “girl” or it A#+ figinka “gynecology.”

| HEDKFARODHEOIG RR, CAREC CME |

| LTWSZAK] |

33 WE2> tashika 1 thought; I was pretty sure that / KK joshidai women’s university / =4F sannen third year (stu- dent) / 13°72 hazu da supposed to be / CARECTC konna toko de in a place like this / MeL TWAAR nani o shite ira n’ da what are you doing?

Gy LCw #4

7 The sentential adverb #2 indicates that the speaker is al- most certain of what he saying, though the word does

leave some room for doubt Here it reinforces ti",

which also indicates something that the speaker believes

to be true Thus f#Ê4*#Z-ƒ k=f£Øt33 `? means “I thought you were supposed to be a junior at a women’s university.” / KX is an abbreviation for KT-KY joshi daigaku / & = is an informal version of FT tokoro

“place.” / The A in LTV24AZE is a spoken form of

the explanatory and nominalizing

177

LL however / ALIE shitia scolding / #⁄: 5233»

272 didn’t flinch; was unfazed / BUSA (refers to

older men) / PEA ZEACL + yonda n’ desho you called,

didn’t you

B USB Po ek U4OeRW œ ECAC / IF

ATE se IES yobu

sk 7:U4¢ means “to be overcome; to be staggered.” /

The word BU SA is used to address or refer to men who are somewhat older than oneself: The word implies

some degree of familiarity The equivalent for referring to

women is BIZ& A The words BUVSA and BILH

A are used in the same way to refer to elderly men and women

9

anc

| REO morS sais, [BREAms ott

ROMSSUTE, VOLELOK ROBES

178

The Girl Next Door

By hort we RS / PORK S ww PHZWIHNE & &

2 / ÈÙ*® 2v s CLV de wa nai

zE J§Œ: lterally means “the colors of fiags.” Originally, the idiom J#f2Š:V* referred to an armys flaps becoming less visible on the field of battle as the army is defeated

Here, it refers to the fact that S was in a weaker position

to scold M-ko for working as a prostitute after she pointed out that he was the one who had hired her / {È 3Ì) is money sent periodically to help another person, such as a college student or an aged parent / ? 5% &

272% is a contraction of POtITNIE7H, which

means “must do.”

¡ 9m œ{ 15 D #Át#sš+3)

| ev

3B /\\— ERIE] ko icbijtkan for nearly an hour / mBC% Belt

72 sekkyé o tsuzuketa he continued preaching / Va At

A unfortunately / 327 2°% > hakuryoku ga nai it had

no effect (on her)

By BUTT: ew WEU 5 Buaukzm / BV ow HS

z2: The initial + in this sentence is the quoting ¢, referring

to 91 / Before expressions of quantity, the prefix /]\ ko

means “almost; slightly less than.” / The original meaning

of #i#¢ is “religious preaching; proselytizing.” In its refer-

ence here to S’s attempt to convince M-ko to quit prosti-

tution, the word lacks any religious connotation / 347] means “the ability to move or influence other people.”

179

#8 UR jodan joke / ASX honki honesty; seriousness / 27»

¥a unable to tell the difference / [lil kuchd tone of voice / Wor: said / HERTS? enché suu do you want to extend the time?

BH “22 œ 2€ /Vv1^?⁄z: we 8) nya

£ WRLC SARL OOMMORT means “in a tone of voice that S couldn’t tell was joking or serious.” / It seems that S had arranged to pay for one hour of M-ko’s

services If he had agreed to the Ez, he would have had

to pay an additional fee

ct 4% L&p2% nani mo shinakatta refers to the fact that

S had done nothing that he had paid the call girl for /

#152 means “agreement; rules” and the suffix ¢3 9,

180

The Girl Next Door

also written 14, means “in accordance with,” so #1723H ) means “as agreed.”

| 9p

| MES «Ald, TBIES ANISM LEW TS |

& PB mà (Sk) ERA LEB CH THOR

ot BIFSA (refers to older women) / Agkic LEW TH

\F4 naisho ni shitoite ageru Vil keep it secret for you / # 8K & LZ: kizen to shita stubborn / $8 kao face; expression /foTC\v*S? kaette ita left

Bp LEWCUr LBW e $4,864 /lLkw tS / C se lữ 2 kaeru/ Vo 72 wwe FT < thu

sz Here, BITS A refers to S’s wife M-ko uses this word be-

cause she is acquainted with S’s wife If M-ko had never

met S’s wife or was not on familiar terms with her, she would have used the word 328 A okusan “wife” instead

/ WiiiE means “secret; confidential.” AgE'2 > means

“to keep confidential.” / 4134 indicates that M-ko will keep the secret as a favor to S

rô

The Girl Next Door

| 3q |

5% in addition; even more so / Lol? #2" # †Ưc ceived master’s degrees in linguistics and mathematics sheepishly; having been caught in an act of weakness / Ÿñ Handy Japanese: The Basics in 50 Easy Lessons from the University of Chicago He is the author of y Ja and English

Jor Scientists, and general editor of Kenkyusha’s Cunt to

Quantitative Expressions in English His dictionary work

48 Lt kikyd shita returned to his home town / A she- raga white hair, gray hair / #8 à?: + 3 z5(ðLU? fuea

96 na ki ga shita seemed (to him) to have increased includes Kenkyusha’s New JapaneseEnglish Dictionary, 5th i

TY we AUX HS ki / O2 Edition, as well as its online version as part of the Ken-

PENT we OPENS w OME / IAHR L 7c ow l§ kyusha Online Dictionary Among his translated works

Onomatopoeia: For All Level He is presently -associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences at the

zt The first sentence consists of the questions that S wanted Unrversity of Tokyo Hesso:

to ask M:ko but couldn’t Why and when had she started working as a call girl? What led her to do i? / SaMlt means “cause; reason; start.” / Bil & Hid means “to ask.”

It often refers to an attempt to extract information from someone who is reluctant to reveal it / The idiom Lo

\P4— ts means “to reveal a person’s weaknesses or se- crets.” The literal meaning is “to grab by the tail.” 182

With the exception of Chapter 9, which is new to this edition, Revealed by a Daughter-in-Law's Sudden Urge

33

by Kodansha International in 1997 under the title ị 2 Lè*&i8Lvc52 Z8 +ull§2”) Aon

Cover design by Koichi Kawamura Climbed While Carrying a Dead Friend

Published by Japan & Stuff Press, Mihara 2-19-60-202, b 3 ÂlfEHBilZ WHSQOLEBERS

Copyright © Asahi Shimbunsha tr†otec

Copyright © 2007 by Tom Gally i The Son-in-Law of the Mo All rights reserved ` Ni

The Cluelessness of a “Connected” Employee

on Her Way to the “Country of Ban”

Hijo > RMR DAOSS

The Rich Bay’s Urine Therapy and His Girlfriend’s Depression 1) CIf/ð.E7R7 L- JLiãIl4B4@18

His First Call Girl Was the Girl Next Door

Most Japaneselanguage textbooks make language learning sim-

ple and systematic They carefully limit the number of kanji in-

troduced at each level They present new vocabulary and grammatical patterns step by step Most important of all, they choose topics that are easy for readers to understand and un- likely to offend any teachers or students The only problem

- with these textbooks is that they generally are very, very dull The boredom induced by textbooks contrasts sharply with the rich and stimulating variety of the Japanese press Some fifty thousand books are published every year in Japan on sub- jects ranging from philosophy to pornography Thousands of magazines clog the racks of bookstores and newsstands, offer-

ing entertainment and debate, scandal and libel, the high, the middlebrow, and the very low It is this world, the world of

Japanese as it is really written, into which this book is intended

to provide a glimpse

The nine stories in this book were chosen from the

“Dekigotology” column that appeared in the magazine JH T1184

H Shikan Asahi for many years The word dekigotology (7° =

kt Y=) is a combination of Hi3€3# dekigoto, which means

“event” or “happening,” and the Greek/English suffix logy Dekigotology, in other words, is the study of things that hap-

pen Each week, the column carried a half dozen stories, all

purported to be true, about interesting events that had hap- pened to people recently The stories generally concern subjects that are familiar or topical, and their interest lies in the way they reveal what happens behind the scenes of everyday life

7

Introduction

The stories are often surprising and usually funny

The stories on the following pages were selected from the

hundreds that ran in “Dekigotology” in the early 1990s To be chosen, each story had to meet two criteria: it had to be inter- esting, and it couldn’t be so topical that it would quickly go out of date There was also an attempt to choose a variety of

topics

Organization

Each story is presented first in its entirety, exactly as in the paper- back book edition, with kanji pronunciations marked only

when they appeared in the original An English translation ap-

pears on the facing page This translation is intended to help the reader understand the Japanese, so it is more literal in places than a smooth literary translation would be Students of Japanese may want to avoid looking at the translation until they have finished reading the text and notes

Next, the story is presented again a sentence or two at a

time, with the reading of every kanji marked with furigana Each of these text excerpts is followed by several groups of

notes sứ

The first notes, marked with the kanji šễ (short for #%

vocabulary), consist of short glosses of words and phrases that appear in the preceding sentence Every word is explained ex-

cept basic grammatical function words (id, 2°, %, etc.) and words that have appeared earlier in the same story

The second group of notes, marked with the kanji #4 (short for Hil verb), consists of reverse derivations of declined verbs

and adjectives The first word in each derivation is the form

that appears in the sentence, while the last word is the form

that would normally appear in dictionaries For example, the

series BEd 7% Ao 72 ww RED eV ww KE utagau goes from the past-tense negative to the nonpast negative to the nonpast

affirmative (or dictionary) form of this verb _

The third group, marked with 2# (short for 7EAR an-

Introduction

notation), consists of detailed notes on the vocabulary and

grammar Special attention is given to identifying the subjects

of verbs and to showing which nouns are modified by which

adjectives, relative clauses, etc These notes also include remarks

on usage, related words, and typographical conventions, the last being a topic rarely mentioned in Japanese textbooks

The notes in the final group, marked & (short for sch culture), provide information and commentary about the cul tural background of the stories When necessary, they also ex

plain what makes the stories particularly interesting or funny

to the Japanese reader

Pronunciations are marked in the notes using romaji, not

furigana There are several reasons for this Furigana are some

times hard to read, especially when the type is small Romaji are useful for showing word divisions and identifying the read- ings of the particles {i and ~\, such as in the phrase ¢ V>4

Ok to iu no wa And for students who have learned Japanese from teachers who prohibit the use of romaji, the romaji scat-

tered through the notes will familiarize them with this method

of representing Japanese pronunciation, which is still essential for scholars and for others who use both Japanese and English

in international contexts

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to many people for their help in the preparation

of this book I first learned of “Dekigotology” over two decades ago from Tomoko Iwai, who was one of my Japanese teachers

at the time, and her enthusiasm for making language learning

interesting as well as educational was one of the inspirations for this book I am also thankful to Hiroko Fukuda and

Kazushi Ishida, who made valuable contributions to an early

draft, to Michael Brase and Shigeyoshi Suzuki of Kodansha

International for their helpful suggestions during the planning

stages and for their careful editing of the first edition in 1997, and again to Michael Brase, now executive director of Japan &

9

Introduction

Stuff Press, for offering to publish this expanded edition

Special gratitude also goes to the Asahi Shimbun for kindly granting permission to reprint the stories here and to Shin- chosha for permission to use the versions published in book form Readers who wish to read more of these stories are en- couraged to purchase the paperback anthologies in the # H3¢

J Asahi Bunko and #18) 3C# Shinché Bunko series

I would also like to thank the participants in the Honyaku mailing list for their wise and informative discussions on many matters related to Japanese and English translation For their responses to questions I posted about this book, I am particu-

larly indebted to Sara Aoyama, Adrian Boyle, John Brannan, Regina I A Brice, John Bryan, John De Hoog, Alan Gleason, Graham Healey, Rich Higgins, Brian Howells, Sako Ikegami,

Dan Kanagy, Yosuke Kawachi, J C Kelly, Mamoru Kondo,

Bill Lise, David J Littleboy, John Loftus, Tammy J Morimoto,

Gururaj Rao, Adam Rice, Karen Sandness, Fred Uleman,

Rodney Webster, and John Zimet

As always, I am indebted to my wife, Ikuko Gally She pro-

vided many comments and suggestions about each of the sto- ries in this book, and her insights greatly improved the accuracy and depth of the notes

Although all of these people did their best to help me, I fear that I have betrayed their kindness by persisting in many errors, for each of which I take full responsibility

Tom Gally

2š

HARES SAE AI Lot kOlXZ4O©—ot‡

#tÄ2#32*fiH < #v› *và3 CER, MRENI CI,

ii Hà ti CC cÍ#ft3 2/22 ïb622-b, A FBEZVOMSLNEWD, PRUELOFHARIC RO

Th BLA CHOS SOAMNEL ALR CHR, TA KORE IZOWT] bm® [fãi#5F2 3 | kv\3, HA t.4?#ï BI 2‡t3fl2 H2 k 3 2z —WWRầ4©#HÚÑR§, & 2 v› l‡Q [XS ^4X&Al‡#tf£3 | 2x3 +, #0 Ÿ#22*b

#‡#L2vx24Ÿ, SSEã\° 143B z8 L‡2» Ð 2Ÿ 2 TRS DH

, $©x*3 z#t#'# CHKš##ùïâ3j 2k H4li2 KSBWER, ARAM ZL AME, kvša#

PRS REC PAR,

Lal, HAICHEA, HRAOMB, FUE, BRE ROWS L, COBDMORICAITEV OBB

li #‡f €Cv2 kv›v3) >k23‡Ð2*2 kK CHHEHS HSL, PRCWIZIIZLVHS HSS,

PILRE CARBEMIALTURER, ARBRE

fo TV RAR BORIC SL ECU ORB

Ch, SCIAP A, RICMROSHRH, MAS ICR VRE 2 RUZ —~HORKC ZOLIGEOAAKBER

II

EAS

BRIE OTM SD, MeOH ERT SMT SL

WOE, WEHLWIE, F4WCEREPRLL ED TWH, HAL D 0 OPPS TRA CVRMK to Td,

DLE ORC, CORES FMA THO

(ARB eEFSRTSWBARAS, AKROCECRBTE

3 v13 Ä& 3 I=8Á3? Z2, #z:32RAOH €H%if%

Tue Honesty oF a Famous ŠUPERMARKEI, Reveateo ey A Daueurer-in-Law’s

Suoven Uree

FESEA (X—) 2b Cš¿:Ot‡, 1tOl†riRẪẰ

“Since I had already come as far as Shibuya, I just dropped by to see my grandchild’s face.”

For S-ko, her mother-in-law was more frightening than a demon Sko did everything she could to be a

good hostess for ko Later, her mother-in-law took S-

ko’s daughter for a walk

Sko breathed a sigh of relief As she relaxed, S-ko felt

hungry, and her eyes suddenly came to rest upon the bag of doughnuts that her mother-inlaw had bought at K-nokuniya, a luxury supermarket nearby Rko had said that she was going to take the doughnuts home to Zushi

S-ko thought at first, “I really shouldn’t touch them.” But hunger is stronger than reason She opened the bag and found six doughnuts inside

J5

RUtCEW 2, £9 41M 5 tamhls, BRP ORS

kL, FOF VY OSES TC, HEM ICRo TRO,

CCAS, BFicRokRFFSA, Lory, -

[KFØOK 27BR?‡t A# š X# 3? 4# AC L-|

&, S0t<¢ KJ HEBICHE* = +P ORO BR

AOR -F Yee RERKS MCHA, MER LEY

Re EWI

FFSAS CONIC,

closed the package

Fko returned from her walk none the wiser Quite satisfied with herself, she left for home carrying the bag

of doughnuts

But sure enough, when Fko returned to Zushi, she

noticed that one doughnut was missing That’s when the trouble started

“I can’t believe that, of all the stores in Japan, K-

nokuniya would make such a mistake!” Rko immedi- ately called K-nokuniya to complain The call dragged

on for thirty minutes Fko was too much for the per- son handling the matter at K-nokuniya The first thing the next morning, clutching a single 80-yen doughnut

as if their lives depended on it, the sales clerk and the floor supervisor came to Fko’s home to apologize One

way, it had taken more than two hours When asked,

the sales clerk said she had left home at five o'clock that morning

Fko was greatly impressed “That’s K-nokuniya for you!” she said

She spread the story around to her friends and S-ko

Of course, when Sko heard what had happened, her face turned deathly pale She has firmly resolved to take the secret to her grave

47

sk 7'-Ls is usually written Hi3k-L Katakana is often sub

stituted for kanji or hiragana in informal writing as a kind of playful emphasis / The phrases RO 7-1 C4]

2 and 2% —2Ÿ— Ø both modify ME®

FER OM NHO BDZ Lor

iit FH#+ Setagaya residential area in western Tokyo / S¥

SA Eswkosan Ms S., Sko / =— ww =+—E vui

isai 31 years old / % taku home, residence / 32F- Zushi city near Kamakura, about 50 km south of central Tokyo / 4 shitome mother-in-law / i742 TK 7 tazunete ita came to visit / HFN teyx the rainy season, which usually

comes to all of Japan except Hokkaido in June / Ha 7UfAl harema a brief dry spell

The word “ö can come immediately after a person's name without a connecting M, so S#& AE means “$ko's home.” / The phrase 32 (<2 fEtrh} modifies FX A,

so @FicfEG FSA means “F-ko, (S-ko’s)

mother-in-law, who lives in Zushi.” / The topic of this sentence is FF SAA BHATAKOI “(the time when) F-ko came to visit”; the ® is a nominalizing parti- cle This topic is linked by the copula F327 to #ERYO

HEAL ORO = & The core meaning of the sentence is

thus “the time when F-ko came to visit was around mid- day during a brief dry spell in the rainy season.”

The principal characters in the “Dekigotology” stories, and in many similar articles in the popular press, are identified by their initials The $ in S- marks it as a woman’s name, perhaps 3#-=- Sachiko or ## Shizuko The motherinlaw F might be (+ Fumiko or BEF- Figiko Not all women’s names end in -¥-, however, and

sometimes you may see names like H3€ (for #3 Harumi) or A#® (for #33 Anna) / The ages =— and

7\— are written in kanji here because that is how they appeared in the original vertically-printed article In hori-

zontal Japanese text, the numbers would normally be writ-

ten as 31 and 61 / The kanji 4 is not one of the 1945

characters of the #FHYEF joo kanji list recommended

by the Japanese government for general use Aside from school textbooks and newspapers, few publications adhere

rigorously to that list, and the student of Japanese who

learns only the #/H}& will remain incompletely liter-

ate

1p

By ew RS kun / iw LS min

z+ What Fko means to say at the end of this sentence is 4

Loe ROMLAIRKA CT “I just dropped by to see my grandchild’s face.” Fko’s omission of the verb is a breezy, familiar style that is common in speech and infor

mal writing The stories in this book contain many verb- less sentences / The symbols | and | are used here as quotation marks Called $4485 kagi kakko “key brackets”

because of their resemblance to Japanese L-shaped keys ($3 kagi), these marks are also used for emphasis and to indicate proper names, as in lg and 6)

šEÕD S+#-XA\lrÈk 5 Clš Eukosn 0í tot£ 4 for Sko, In $

ko’s opinion / 5% oni devil; demon / Jffv* kowai fright

ening

2 The topic phrase of this sentence is understood to be F FSAI

3% Conflicts between married women and their husbands’

mothers are a frequent theme of popular fiction and tele vision dramas, reflecting, perhaps, the prevalence of such conflicts in real life

HEMT turete taking along / BARI sanpo ni for a walk

/\¥2T% 52k had gone, [lit] received (her) going

WoT {7€ a/b bok w h545 z+ The subject of OTHLZ and b50%k is SFA,

and the subject of ##71T and Vo T is FFA

x The image of a daughter-in-law playing the perfect hostess while secretly fearing her mother-in-law would be familiar

to many Japanese readers

27

ey Loxenm i DUE ORRMA-N— [K/ HEB) CH bm 23893 yo he © By

5a RAR ATE ki ga yurunda relaxed; became less tense, less vigilant, [lit.] the 5 Ai became slack / -&\> because / 2

HE kafeku empty stomach; hunger / 32% 72 obveta felt /

at suddenly / Mf $ Ø chikaku no nearby / Fai kokya

high-class; luxury / [K / EB] Kénokuniya abbreviated

name of supermarket / > 72 atta purchased / & V4

to iu, to yi which (Fko) said (she bought) / F-7+7

$5 dénatsu no fukuro bag of doughnuts / BILE o%

me ga tomatia (S-ko) noticed; [lit.] (S-ko’s) eye stopped on RATE ow RLS yurumu [| BAL we HRS obom/ R

The phrase @2*#KA 7EAEV» A> means “perhaps because she relaxed,” explaining why S-ko suddenly felt hungry / The topicmarker 1 wa after Skosan has been elided /

While 2% 4 often means “to remember” or “to learn,”

here its meaning is “to feel.” / if is the subject of Ho

zz / SFA is the topic for HALE Ze

Tokyo residents would recognize K/ HIE as 1/7 BB Kinokuniya, a luxury supermarket that sells imported food

(There’s also an international chain of bookstores called

Kinokuniya, but they write their name #1/# BZ.)

/ 42a (shows mild exclamation; used by female speakers)

/ DOD mono no but / FARISEAMEL OAL kafuku

wa nsei yori tuyoshi hunger is stronger than reason WoT w BD word / 72 wD / BAe ow

The kanji FA is used as a suffix in many expressions simi-

lar to HGH Examples include & kyakuyo “for use

by guests,” 324] gun’yo “for military use,” and #£F4 shayo

“for company use.” / The parentheses in (C MICS FY

Hitt 44a) and in 1j indicate S-ko’s unspoken

thoughts / 5#L is the archaic literary form of the adjec- tive HV suyot “strong.” / F-& A is understood to be the subject of V3 TV»72, while S-& A is the subject

of HARV and Bor

The phrase 224 (#24: KY 5L is a pun on the pro

verb Stk] KY GL pen wa ken yori tsuyoshi “The pen

is mightier than the sword.”

3

28 BH} È akem to when (Sko) opened / HIS naka ni

wa inside / 7\{fil rokko six (roundish objects)

+ In full, this sentence would end 74H F-FYMHokK,

Wy 7 package / HE futa cover / BAYIS neni ni

carefully; meticulously / TITER LTB moto ni modo-

shite oita reclosed (the package); [lit.] returned (the cover)

to its original position (in preparation for Fko’s return)

By PPORW we FPS wakam / BVT w RWC sou /

z The particle & is used in two distinct meanings in this sentence The first & can be called the “quoting” &; it is used to report speech, names, or, in this case, | thoughts

The quoting & often appears with the verb =) “to say”

or A “to think”; it is also used in 1g and Ih, for exam- ple The second & is the “sequential” ¢; it shows that one action follows another Examples of the sequential ở appear in li and Ik

Honesty of a Famous Supermarket

X Sko’s impulsive doughnut eating is the 72.1) men-

tioned in the story’s title

1k

BH 4%) LASHES wath sé to wa shiranu shitome her mother-

inlaw, who didn’t know about that / ##PORSL sanpo kara modoru to when (she) returned from her walk / EITC sqgete carrying / HELIS IC manzokuge ni with a satisfied look / }##2> TV 75 haette itta went home

2+ The # ending on #1 #3 is a more literary version of the negative suffix %V»; #15 #a has the same meaning

as #1 5 7%» / The basic meaning of the verb #217°S is

“to dangle, to let hang.” When the object is a shopping

bag, handbag, or other object with a strap or handle, the

verb is best translated as “to carry.”

25

cram, HPI ROLF LS ĐO & 3 T- SK R > Fe AR EA Po Re fe ae ch

to be missing / SA*OV7: ki ga tuita noticed / MH because / KE tathen a major crisis

we FES modoru / AY Vs ww YS tarim /

Fok

DV

The adverb L220), which modifies RAPOV72, sug

gests that Fko is the type who lets very little get past her

/ As in 1b, the particle is a nominalizer, so —fH 9

72V»0 means “(the fact) that one doughnut was miss- ing.” / Note that the meaning of 4*5 depends on the form of the verb it follows After the past or present

tense, it means “because”: AA*OV72A5 “because she noticed.” When preceded by the gerund (te) form, how- ever, it means “after”: 2°OV.T D5 “after she no

ticed.” / The word KE often expresses shock or panic

Someone who finds that the bathtub has overflowed and soaked the tatami is likely to shout [K#7!] “Oh, no!” The word’s use in the above sentence expresses Sko’s sense of impending disaster / The copula 7¢ after KR

has been elided

26

anh 8 KF O tenka no unsurpassed; leading / < A732 A such

a mistake / % AT (expresses doubt, surprise, or anger) / 2€ immediately / 3E% enen at length; longwind- edly / us kdgi complaint / Bas denwa telephone call

As the kanji suggest, the original meaning of KF is

“under heaven,” that is, “the entire country” or “the world.” When used as a modifer, K F® means “widely

known to be the best.” / The traditional pronunciation of +4 in the meaning “ten minutes” is jppun, not juppun

as shown above While the former pronunciation can be

heard in news broadcasts and the like, the latter is more

common in contemporary speech (When +4} means

“enough; sufficient,” it is pronounced jabun.) / With the unstated verb added, this sentence would end .t##O

i244 tantosha the person handling the matter / #4417

Lz: konmake shita gave up

AIT L722 ew RAIS SS konmake suru

more persistent.”

27

dénatsu ikko one 80-yen doughnut / #RAEKSIC gosho

dai ni with infinite care / 41% kakae holding (his or her arms around) / Ast hanbatin sales clerk / 720%

uriba sales floor (of the supermarket) / {E5 sekininsha the manager; the person with senior responsibility / AfJE

\< shazai ni to apologize far ow Har 4 hakaem / S72 ww KS kuru Other combinations with 4 include 4H yokwitsu “the next day” and 438 yokusha “the next week.” / 7UX is

the stem of 42% X kakaemasu, the present formal of

tax 4 The present formal stem is used to link clauses /

The difference between #IEIZ S72 OCHS and just it

3ElZ Ä #2 k that the Ø followed by the copula CHS indicates that this sentence is an elaboration of the pre ceding sentence: it explains what happened after the #124 4% gave up in the face of F-ko’s complaints

The term #2/E ¡s so close in form and meaning to the English “afterlife” that one might think it a loanword In

fact, though, #42 73# comes from Buddhism and origi-

nally meant “caring more about the next life than about

this one.” In this story, the meaning is more secular The

supermarket employees were worried about not the Great Beyond but the store’s reputation There’s a bit of sar-

describe how someone carried an eighty-yen doughnut

Re ize te o deta left home

BAITS ow BAX kiku / Hee owe HS dere

The opposite of Fri is TE ofuku “round trip.” / Other

expressions with Fr include FrC katate de “with one

hand” and 177 katahé “one (of a pair)” / After a nu-

merical expression, 47 means “somewhat more than,”

as in +A) junin amari “more than ten people; a

dozen or so people.” / In this sentence, £27: means

“in order to make the oneway trip of over two hours.” / The unstated subject of BJItif is FF

Nowhere is the gender of the IR5C specified, nor that

of the 124% or the 36) YORFEF Each could be ei-

ther male or female This ambiguity is often impossible to

maintain in translations into English, in which gender- specific pronouns are unavoidable

29

3B STATIC really, as expected / ARR daikangeki greatly

moved; deeply touched c& ON “this” refers to the long journey made by the super

market employees / The vowel of the exclamation parti- cle 4 is lengthened to — wa as emotive emphasis, /

K dai is a prefix meaning “greatly; very much.” / The particle & here is the quoting & (see lj) / The verb of

this sentence is REX L 7: kangeki shita, with the Li

BUM Alc % 2 7: “her face blanched.”

XX The kanji # in #H means “blue” or “green.” It also has the kun reading ao

l8 THỊ bimitsu secret / B34 hakaba grave / FR C{††> 3

© motte ikd to to carry away / [El < hataku firmly; reso-

lutely / HLL TVS kesshin shite iru has decided: has re

solved

XX Sko’s determination to carry to the grave the secret of her

furtive doughnut eating has two motives One is her em- barrassment at having forced the supermarket employees

to take such a long journey for the sake of an 80-yen

doughnut The other motive, which gives a sharper edge

to this story, is S-ko’s continuing fear of what her mother-

in-law would do if she ever found out

jt