Bothersome to try new things with 億劫
Kanji Explanation: Aeons and calamity with 劫
At dusk, Hanae takes the bus to the grocery store to buy ingredients for dinner. There she encounters Hiroto, doing the same on his way home from work. Hiroto says he rode his motorcycle today and can give Hanae a lift home. She refuses, as she’s never ridden on a motorcycle before.
- はなえ:
- 「この年になると新しいことって、億劫なんだよ…」
- “At my age, trying new things is such a hassle…”
Key Points
億劫 = feeling too much bother to do something
Here 億劫 describes Hanae’s reluctance before trying something unfamiliar, not physical difficulty or impossibility.
It has a feeling of “I just don’t feel up to dealing with that.”
新しいことって marks “new things” as the topic
って is a casual topic marker here, close to 新しいことは.
Hanae is not talking about one specific new thing only; she is generalizing about unfamiliar experiences at her age.
この年になると = “when you get to this age”
〜になると sets a condition or stage: once someone reaches this age, the following tendency becomes true.
この年 refers to Hanae’s own current age or life stage, which makes the line self-deprecating rather than a rule about everyone.
億劫なんだよ gives the reason as a personal explanation
なんだ presents the feeling as an explanatory realization: “it’s that it feels like a hassle.”
よ adds a conversational, gently emphatic tone, as if Hanae is justifying why she is refusing the motorcycle ride.
See Also
- Grammar: Reasoning with 〜のだ