Improve your Japanese reading skills with online reading material! Introducing "The Wife Who Doesn't Eat."
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The hot weather continues every day, but are you all enjoying summer festivals, fireworks displays, the beach, or swimming pools?
Summer is all about scary stories! Today, we'll share another scary story that will give you a chill.
The title is "The Wife Who Doesn't Eat."
"Kuwazu" means "not to eat."
"Nyobo" means "wife."
What kind of person is a "wife who doesn't eat"? Let's read the story and find out!
"The Wife Who Doesn't Eat"
Once upon a time, there lived a man in a certain place.
One day in town, the man met his friend.
Man: "Hey, it's been a while."
Friend: "Oh! Long time no see. How are you?"
Man: "I'm fine. How about you?"
Friend: "My family is all doing well. They just had a baby recently."
Man: "Wow. Congratulations."
Friend: "You should get married soon."
Man: "Hmm, I don't want to get married. If I get married, I'll lose all my money."
Friend: "Haha. There's happiness that's more important than money."
Man: "I'd like to marry a woman who doesn't eat."
Friend: "There's no way someone like that exists. Hahaha. You're really funny."
The man and his friend talked about this for a while.
One night, I heard someone knocking on the door.
When the man opened the door, a beautiful woman was standing there.
Woman: "Excuse me, I'm a traveler and I have nowhere to stay tonight... Could you let me stay the night?"
Man: "I can let you stay the night, but I won't provide you with food."
Woman: "Yes, that's fine. I don't eat meals."
And so the man decided to let the woman stay the night at his house.
However, a typhoon hit that day, so the woman ended up staying at the man's house for a short while.
The woman truly hadn't eaten anything, so the man was overjoyed, believing he had met his ideal woman, and proposed marriage.
The woman also liked the man, and the two got married soon after.
Months passed, and the man became increasingly worried because the woman really hadn't eaten anything.
Man: "Hey, why don't you have some too?"
Woman: "No, I'm fine."
The man went to work every day, worried about her.
However, one day, when I came home from work, I noticed that there was significantly less rice left in the house.
Man: "Huh? I just bought this the other day, but this is all that's left. That's strange."
The man wondered.
The next day, the man met his friend again in town.
Friend: "Hey, I heard you got married! And your wife is really beautiful, isn't she?"
Man: "Yes, that's right. I'm really a lucky man. But there's one thing that worries me."
Friend: "What is it?"
Man: "Well, my wife doesn't eat a single bite of rice."
Friend: "There's no way someone like that exists. That's weird. It must be a demon or a ghost."
Man: "N-n-no way!"
The man became frightened.
The next day, the man said he was going to work, but instead climbed onto the ceiling and secretly looked around the house.
Then the woman quickly brought a large bag of rice, put it in a large pot, and began to cook it.
If you make 30 rice balls with cooked rice,
Woman: "Ah, I'm hungry!"
He then took off the towel he had wrapped around his head.
And then, what a surprise!
The woman had a huge mouth on her head, and she was stuffing the rice balls she had made into it!
Man: "Wow! It's a demon!"
The man trembled on the ceiling for a while, but in the evening he left as if nothing had happened.
Woman: "Oh, welcome back."
Man: "Oh... uh. I'm home."
The woman's large mouth is now hidden by the towel.
Woman: "What's wrong? You're completely pale."
Man: "No..."
Woman: "No way... You saw it, didn't you? You saw my mouth!!! Since you saw it, there's no other choice. I'll take you back to the mountains and eat you."
The woman instantly transformed into a demon, put the man in a large basket, and ran off towards the mountains.
The woman keeps running up the mountain.
Woman: "Phew. We've been running for quite a while. Let's take a break."
Saying that, he sat down under a nearby tree and began to rest.
Meanwhile, the man quietly escaped from the basket and hid in a place where there were many irises.
The woman who noticed,
Woman: "Where did you go?!"
And I looked for the man.
However, it seems the woman dislikes the smell of irises.
Woman: "Hmm. They're not here."
The woman has gone somewhere.
And so the man was able to return home.
The man decided he would never again say, "I want a wife who doesn't eat."
How was it?
It's terrifying to think that it has a huge mouth on its head.
Now, today we'd like to study grammar using the text as a guide.
The man said something like this:
"Huh? I just bought this the other day, but it's already gone. That's strange."
Today, let's consider the difference between "~ta bakari" and "~ta tokoro."
Both terms describe the moment immediately after an action has finished, but what is the difference between the two?
First, please look at these two sentences.
① Ms. Tanaka just got married last year.
② Ms. Tanaka got married last year.
Which is correct in this sentence, ① or ②?
The correct answer is ①.
The word "tabakari" can be used if the speaker thinks it's short.
On the other hand, the actual time period must be very short.
Last year is not actually a very short period of time, so we cannot use it here.
Let's look at the correct way to use it.
Sample 1: Ms. Sato only joined this company a week ago, so she's still getting used to things.
Sample 2: I just finished work, so I'm heading home now.
Also, "~ta tokoro" cannot be connected to a noun.
This is a computer I just bought yesterday.
× This is the computer I bought yesterday.
Did you find today's Japanese lesson helpful?
I hope I've been able to support your studies.
See you again in the next blog post!
