SHIAWASE and the Autumn Sun

　　I am starting a weekly blog. The plan is each week I will write about the random Japanese language and Japan issues that have occupied my brain in the previous 7 days.

　　I’ll start with language. This week I learnt the proverb 秋の日は釣瓶落とし　AKI NO　HI　WA TSURUBE-OTOSHI (the Autumn sun sets as quickly as a bucket dropping into a well).　 I love expressions like this that capture a feeling in a novel way. 　Who hasn’t noticed this week how quickly the sun is racing off?

        I came across a more common expression of feeling this week in a Kazumasa Hayami novel店長がバカすぎて　(literal translation: The Bookstore Owner is such An Idiot) . 　The narrator of the story is Kyoko Tanihara, a 29-year-old non-permanent employee in a bookstore.  In the book, Kyoko says 「何とか幸せになりた」いNANTOKA SHIAWASE NI NARITAI (I somehow want to be happy).       

　　This expression for becoming happy (SHIAWASE NI NARU) has come up in my lessons this week.　 I love teaching it. 　The word SHIAWASE (happiness) somehow feels like a happy, lucky word. 　You can even try it for yourself: ‘if you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands’　幸せなら手をたたこう　(SHIAWASE NARA TE O TATAKOU)　

        Kyoko Tanihara isn’t happy though. 　She’s mostly very angry. 　As a contract-employee she has very few rights or job security. 　And this is where fiction and fact merge.

　　In Brighton-based author Mikako Brady’s book on Japan, she interviews Takanori Fujita, a social worker and writer in Japan. 　He says many young Japanese are in despair - 「絶望しています」　ZETSUBOU SHITE-IMASU. 　He describes how many young people in Japan now can earn enough to feed themselves, but not  enough to ever have a family. 　It’s a disturbing reality.

　　Back in the novel, 29 year old Kyoko does seem to find some kind of SHIAWASE. 　Her happiness comes from in books rather than her job or life circumstances. 　That is definitely a form of SHIAWASE I can relate to.