Japanese with anime voice: episode26
Hello, I’m Sachi.
It is Monday, April 8! Another week begins! I really don’t feel motivated on Mondays…why is that? When I worked for a company, I thought I was unmotivated because it was the end of a week off, but now that I don’t work for a company anymore, I still have a hard time getting up on Monday mornings… I guess it doesn’t matter if I work for a company or not, I just don’t like Mondays. I don’t like Mondays anyway. Well, it’s such a depressing Monday, but I’m going to cheer myself up somehow!
So, what is today, Tire Day? You may be thinking, “What the heck is Tire Day? In Japan, spring traffic safety campaign is held in April. And if you line up two tires vertically, it looks like a figure eight, doesn’t it? That is why it is called Tire Day. I think that it would be better to call it Traffic Safety Day instead of focusing only on tires, but in fact, it has been said for a long time that traffic accidents are often caused by tires’ 経年劣化 (keinenrekka). 経年劣化 (keinenrekka) means that the thing itself gets worse as time goes by. I heard that the news didn’t cover it much. I didn’t know that either. Even though I drive a car. I wish they would make such an important thing more widely known.
By the way, do you guys know the term “車社会 (Kruma shakai: car society)”? It refers to an area of life where a car is indispensable. In rural Japan, you cannot go anywhere without a car. Many of Japan’s tourist destinations are famous for their large cities, which may give you the impression that Japan has a well-developed transportation network everywhere. However, this is true only in some cities, and most suburban areas are inconvenient without a car. It is impossible to go to work or go shopping. Both my hometown and the place where I live now require a car. Some people ask if there are any buses, and of course there are, but there are basically no buses early in the morning or late at night. During the daytime, there is usually only one bus every hour. Therefore, if you go to the suburbs with the image of Tokyo or Osaka, you may be surprised at the inconvenience and high transportation costs. This is why cars are so necessary in places outside of big cities. However, cars are expensive to maintain, and I think they are a real money pit.
And speaking of tires, my partner just noticed something the other day. Where I live now, it almost never snows. Even if it does, it rarely piles up. But in my hometown, it used to snow a lot, but now it’s much less frequent and for much less time than it used to. But, you know, when it snows and piles up, even for one day, we have to change to snow tires in the winter. I don’t know when the snow will fall. I don’t even know if it will fall or not. Furthermore, in a town about 30 minutes by car from my hometown, it snows but only once every few years, but we still need snow tires. When you live in such a place, you have to spend a lot of money on unnecessary expenses that you don’t understand. And even regular tires cost 経年劣化 (keinenrekka) even if they are studded. Anyway, cars cost a lot of money to maintain. It’s so annoying, really.
This is a different topic, but an interesting part of the Japanese language that the tire change reminded me of. Tires are usually expressed as 付いている (tsuiteiru) or 付いていない (tsuiteinai).
春から秋までは、車には普通のタイヤが付いていますが、冬にはスタッドレスタイヤが付いています。 (From spring to fall, cars have regular tires, but in winter they have studless tires.)
Like that. However, the word “履く (haku)” is used more often than “付いている (tsuiteiru) “. Maybe only people in my hometown use this word, but I think people in areas where snow tires are required use this word. The word “履く (haku)” is used for pants, shoes, and other things worn on the body, but it is also used for cars. “もうスタッドレス履いとる？ (Mou staddoresu haitoru?: Do you have snow tires on already?) ” or “スタッドレス履かせた (Sutaddoresu hakaseta: I put snow tires on the car.)” In Japanese, the subject is rarely used, so even if the word “car” is not used, it is easy to understand that putting on studded tires means a car. It is absolutely impossible for a human being or a pet to wear snow tires. In English, a humanoid robot is called a he or she. In the same way, in Japanese, we use the same expressions for cars as we do for people. So, if you are in an area where it snows in winter, and you can ask your neighbors “スタッドレスはもう履いてます？ (Sutaddoresu ha mou haitemasu?: Have you changed your car tires to snow tires yet?),” you are already a native Japanese speaker.
