Do you know the old tale "Monkey and Crab"? Let's enjoy reading stories in Japanese!
For online Japanese lessons, try Koharu Japanese Office! In addition to JLPT exam preparation and business Japanese training, you can also take classes that suit you for everyday conversation and pronunciation correction with full-fledged lessons by professional teachers.
It's getting colder and colder, but have you finished changing clothes yet? In the past few years, even if you think it's getting cooler, it's suddenly getting hot again, so I'm wondering if I can still wear this kind of clothes.
Well, autumn is the season when reading is fun. Let's read a Japanese story leisurely at home. This time I would like to introduce a story called "Monkey and Crab". I would be happy if I could help you with your study.
"Monkey and Crab"
A long time ago, monkeys and crabs were walking in search of food.
The crab picked up a large rice ball, but the monkey picked up only a small persimmon seed.
The monkey was very hungry and desperate for crab rice balls.
"Hey, Kani-san. I'll exchange this persimmon seed for that rice ball. If you eat the rice ball, it's over, but if you bury the persimmon seed in the ground, it will grow into a big tree and produce many persimmons." ?"
"Yeah, sure."
The crab listened to the monkey's story and exchanged rice balls for persimmon seeds.
"Shut up!"
As soon as the monkey received the rice ball, he ate it.
The crab carefully brought back the persimmon seeds, buried them in the garden, and watered them.
When the crab was watered every day, the seeds sprouted quickly and grew into a big tree.
And I put on a lot of persimmon fruits.
Then came the monkeys.
When the monkey saw that the persimmon tree was full of fruit, he became envious of the crab.
"Hey, Mr. Crab. You've grown into a big tree. But you can't climb trees, so you won't be able to pick persimmons. I'll pick them for you."
"Oh, Mr. Sal. Thank you for that. Please."
The monkey quickly climbed the tree, took the persimmon, and began to munch on it.
"Hyaa, it's good!"
The crab that was watching it from below
"Mr. Sal. Hurry up and get it for me too."
The monkey ignores it and continues to eat the persimmon.
"Hey, Mr. Monkey! Come over here!"
Then the monkey
"Noisy. Eat this!"
and threw the still green and hard persimmon at the crab.
The crab collapsed and the monkey ran away.
The baby crabs who were watching from their homes came out in droves.
"Oh, I think my mother has collapsed."
"Hey, punish that bad monkey!"
The baby crabs decided to go to the monkey's house to get revenge.
Along the way, I met bees, chestnuts, millstones, and cow dung.
When I told them about the situation, they said that everyone would cooperate in getting rid of the monkeys.
When everyone went to the monkey's house, the monkey had not returned yet.
"Okay, let's all hide and wait."
After a while the monkey came back.
"Hah, it's cold."
The monkey reached out to the hearth to catch the fire.
"now!"
A chestnut that was hidden in the hearth snapped into the monkey's hand.
"Achichichi!"
The monkey tried to cool his burnt hand by opening the lid of the water jug.
Then the baby crabs
"It's mother's stubbornness!"
And cut the monkey's hand with a small pair of scissors.
"Damn it!"
When I try to apply medicine to the wound, a bee comes out of the pot of medicine! stabbed.
"I want to! I want to!"
The monkey jumped out involuntarily.
Then, step on the cow dung that was hidden at the entrance! I fell.
"Gyaa!"
There, the millstone on the roof jumped down and crushed the monkey.
"Guwaa... painful... I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
The monkey cried and apologized.
How was it?
It was a little long story, but it was a refreshing story about getting revenge on a bad monkey.
This "Monkey and Crab" is well known as the "Monkey and Crab Battle" and is said to be one of the "Five Great Fairy Tales". The five great fairy tales are Momotaro, Grandpa Hanasaka, Kachikachiyama, Tongue-kiri Sparrow, and Monkey and Crab Battle. All of them are stories that took their present form from the end of the Muromachi period to the Edo period, and are still being told today.
The original story of "Monkey and Crab Battle" is that the crab that was first thrown the persimmon dies, and then the monkey that was retaliated by the baby crabs also dies, but it's pretty cruel. It seems that some synopsis is born. A cruel story would make me sad, so this time I introduced a synopsis story in which both crabs and monkeys are alive.
There are many stories in the "Five Great Fairy Tales" that I haven't introduced yet, so I would like to write about them again.
Today, I introduced a story called "Monkey and Crab".
Did you learn any new words or expressions? I would be happy if you could learn from everyone.
In Koharu Japanese Office lessons, you will be able to discover amazing Japanese and feel that you have improved yourself, so please try it once!
In addition, Koharu Japanese Language Office is open all year round and accepts lesson reservations every day. We offer a 30-minute free trial lesson for the first time, so please feel free to apply.
We look forward to helping you learn Japanese.
