How long have you stayed home without going out during Japan’s state of emergency? Days? Weeks?
It might be a dream come true for homebodies, but socialites are having a hard time adjusting to the stay-at-home requests. The monotony is driving them crazy.
Is boredom really that bad?
Don’t get us wrong. Being bored during this crisis means we’re among the lucky ones that aren’t under pressure in the front lines, risking our safety for others in healthcare facilities, warehouses, and essential stores. Boredom is a blessing and a privilege if you think about it.
Although boredom has a bad reputation, without being bored, we’d never manage to break from a routine. Like yin and yang, excitement requires us to experience boredom. Don’t feel bad if you feel spiritless. Embrace boredom until it passes and you’re ready to rock the world again.
That being said, there’s only so much you can do at homeduring this stressful quarantine period. Binging Netflixand scrolling through your favorite social media is always more fun when it’s a temporary relief from our daily routine. With too much time on our hands, we don’t feel like doing anything.
Killing time
Staying at home was a chance to catch up on sleep and finally get to watch past seasons of Terrace House, but a lot of folks are bored beyond belief. Funny enough, their boredom led them to be more creative than ever to kill time. Like discovering spices or leveling up their origami skills.
We’ve collected some amazing tweets of people going to some extreme lengths to kill boredom during coronavirus in Japan.
Spice challenge accepted
【】コロナでがなくなので をにけしようとしたらはしかなかった
=
“[New discovery] I lost my job due to the coronavirus and I’ve got a lot of time, so I tried to sort out the seven spices in shichimi(seven-flavor chili pepper), but it turns out there’s only 5 of them.”
While @marin_banamon counted only five different spices, she later apologized saying that the last two spices were too small for her naked eye to sort them out. That’s a serious level of zen!
What a shame
のりいが暇すぎてったジャニーズドンジャラ…。ジャニオタたちでやりたくて作ったのにしてからともまれないことにがついたらしいです。
=
“A friend of my mother was so bored, she built a Johnny’s version of donjara(kids version of the game mahjong). After completing it, she wanted to play with Janiotas (Johnny’s Jr. core fans) but then realized she cannot gather with anyone.”
The male talent agency Johnny & Associates has some hardcore fans out there, and this table game could be a big hit. Hopefully, she’ll be able to play with her friends when the lockdown is finally lifted and socializing is safe again.
Origamazing!
暇すぎて、りスキルががった
=
“I was too bored during vacation, so I leveled up my origami skills.”
These origami are insane, but wait till you see this:
で暇すぎて作ったおりがみがめちゃくちゃくできたのでてほしい
=
“Please look at the super cute origami I made because I was too bored from not going out.”
Crafting these incredible origami took @tckye about eight hours. Impressive!
Who has that kind of patience?!
7141つぶ
#暇つぶし
＝14
＝12
はと＝25
＝72
たかきび＝74
＝98
＝36
とうもろこし＝132
黒ごま＝403
ごま＝432
キヌア＝613
※のいからず↓
もちきび&もちあわ＝1849
アマランサス&ヒエ＝3092
=
“7141grains
#killboredom
Black beans ＝14
Red beans ＝12
Pearl barley (or Job’s tears) ＝25
Barley ＝72
Red brown sorghum ＝74
Sprouted brown rice ＝98
Red rice＝36
Corn ＝132
Black sesame ＝403
White sesame ＝432
Quinoa ＝613
※Total of grains I couldn’t sort out↓
Glutinous millet & glutinous millet ＝1849
Amaranth & Japanese millet ＝3092”
Kudos to @kikkawa_you for sorting out a pack of 十六穀, or a mix of 16 grains and seeds that you can add to your rice, so it becomes more nutritious.
By the way, did you notice the word game with つぶ(grain) and 暇つぶ(kill boredom)? Next time you have too much time on your hands, you could always try counting grains too! This hashtag has been trending a lot on Twitter, so go look up some more creative ways Japanese people are entertaining themselves while staying at home.
The particle で to express cause or reason for something to happen
Japanese particles can be tricky to learn because depending on the context, the same particle can have different meanings in a sentence. The first time you’ll encounter the particle でis most likely as the particle that indicates the place where an action is happening. In this sense, it is often similar to the prepositions “at” or “in” used in English. But で has many other functions.
Today, you’ll see that でcan give the cause or reason for something that triggered an action, an event, or a situation. In this instance, the particle translates “because of” or “due to.”
The sentence pattern is very easy to spot:
Noun (natural phenomena, disasters, events) + で\+ consequence
コロナで仕事がなりました= Because of the coronavirus, I lost my job.
Vocabulary
コロナ korona coronavirus 仕事 shigoto work, job 暇 hima bored 七味 shichimi seven-flavor chili pepper 仕分けする shiwake suru sort out 7種類, 5種類 nana shyurui, go shurui 7 types, 5 types ジャニオタ jyaniota Johnny’s otaku = Johnny’s idol fans 誰とも集まれない dare tomo atsumarenai cannot gather with anyone 連休 renyuu consecutive holidays 外出自粛 gaishutsujishuku refrain from going out, not going out 粒 (つぶ) tsubu grain 暇つぶし hima tsubushi kill boredom 黒豆 kuro mame black beans 小豆 azuki red beans はと麦 hatomugi pearl barley/Job’s tears 大麦 oomugi barley たかきび takakibi red brown sorghum 発芽玄米 hatsuga genmai sprouted brown rice 赤米 akagome red rice とうもろこし toumorokoshi corn 黒ごま kuro goma black sesame 白ごま shiro goma white sesame キヌア kinoa quinoa もちきび mochikibi millet もちあわ mochiawa glutinous millet アマランサス amaransasu Amaranth ヒエ hie Japanese millet 十六穀 jyuurokukoku 16 grain mix
