Tweet of the week #81: Japanese People Are Beyond Bored Staying Home

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 home during this stressful quarantine period. Binging Netflix and 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

【新発見】コロナで仕事がなく暇なので 七味を7種類に仕分けしようとしたら実際は5種類しかなかった pic.twitter.com/jtq9l6w5Na

— ダイナマイト・マリン@ばなもん (@marin_banamon) May 12, 2020

【新発見（しんはっけん）】コロナで仕事（しごと）がなく暇（ひま）なので 七味（しちみ）を7種類（ななしゅるい）に仕分（しわ）けしようとしたら実際（じっさい）は5種類（ごしゅるい）しかなかった

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“[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

母親の知り合いが暇すぎて作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完成してから誰とも集まれないことに気がついたらしいです。 pic.twitter.com/F5Dpeb0dyx

— かねこ (@zigzagkaneko) May 8, 2020

母親（ははおや）の知（し）り合（あ）いが暇すぎて作（つく）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完成（かんせい））してから誰（だれ）とも集（あつ）まれないことに気（き）がついたらしいです。

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“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!

連休暇すぎて、折り紙スキルが上がった pic.twitter.com/nM3kH2FfMX

— むさし (@musamusa408) May 6, 2020

連休（れんきゅう）暇すぎて、折（お）り紙（み）スキルが上（あ）がった

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“I was too bored during vacation, so I leveled up my origami skills.”

These origami are insane, but wait till you see this:

外出自粛で暇すぎて作ったおりがみがめちゃくちゃ可愛くできたので見てほしい#折り紙 #製作時間8時間#大人の本気おりがみ#ユニット折り紙 #おりがみ作品 pic.twitter.com/lDN714XlQo

— ジュラルミン (@tckye) May 10, 2020

外出自粛（がいしゅつじしゅく）で暇すぎて作ったおりがみがめちゃくちゃ可愛（かわい）くできたので見（い）てほしい

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“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
黒豆＝14
小豆＝12
はと麦＝25
大麦＝72
たかきび＝74
発芽玄米＝98
赤米＝36
とうもろこし＝132
黒ごま＝403
白ごま＝432
キヌア＝613
※粒の違い分からず合算↓
もちきび&もちあわ＝1849
アマランサス&ヒエ＝3092 pic.twitter.com/yXiWA8Gb3G

— 吉川友 (@kikkawa_you) May 3, 2020

7141つぶ

#暇つぶし

黒豆（くろまめ）＝14

小豆（あずき）＝12

はと麦（むぎ）＝25

大麦（おおむぎ）＝72

たかきび＝74

発芽玄米（はつがげんまい）＝98

赤米（あかごめ）＝36

とうもろこし＝132

黒ごま＝403

白（しろ）ごま＝432

キヌア＝613

※粒（つぶ）の違（ちが）い分（わ）からず合算（がっさん）↓

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（じゅうろくこく）, 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

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