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…”
- Literal: “When you get to this age, new things are bothersome...”
Key Points
1億劫 = 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.”
2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.
3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.
4億劫なんだよ 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.
Vocabulary
この (This)
この means “this” or “these” and comes directly before a noun. It points to something near the speaker or something the speaker is referring to in the conversation.
億劫 (Troublesome)
億劫 describes something that feels tiresome or too much trouble to begin.
See Also
- Kanji: Aeons and calamity with 劫
- Grammar: Reasoning with 〜のだ
- Grammar: Quoting and reporting with と and って
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