yurayurateikokuさんの おぼえた日記 - 2017年11月5日(日)

Lesson 13 Ugly Produce (6)

It’s understandable to prefer “pretty” foods, I suppose. The nicer food looks, the ore likely we are to assume it’s safe to eat. And in this day and age, we’ve gotten used to fruits and vegetables looking perfect, so a lot of people would probably feel reluctant to settle for what instinctively feels inferior. But once they’d gotten over that hump, sampled such produce and realized it was safe, their fundamental attitude would probably change. Though it must be said, the physical appearance of fruits and vegetables in Japan is lovely. Especially at the swanky shops that sell gift items. I remember my mother during one of her first visits, gaping at a pair of perfectly round melons nestled in a beautiful box. And, of course, gaping at the enormous price they were selling for.

In the past, I’ve had a bad habit of buying fruits and vegetables-wanting to eat more healthily-and then forgetting about them until they’re no longer edible. But a friend of mine recently told me that she cuts up five days’ worth of vegetable snacks every Sunday, stores them in individual containers, and takes one out every workday to munch on at the office. So I’ve started doing that too. Not only does it reduce food waste, it keeps me from heading down to the convenience store for a snack in the afternoon.

We should work to reduce non-food kitchen waste as well. If nothing else, by getting reusable shopping bags to cut down on our enormous use of plastic bags. That too must yield some crazy numbers. If I got three plastic bags a day five days a week, which seems very easy to do, times 52 weeks, that’s 780 plastic bags a year. And that’s just for me. Multiple that by all the people living Tokyo and yikes.

I hate people who use big words just to make themselves look perspicacious.
明敏な頭脳の持ち主だと見せかけるためだけに難解な語を使う人が、私は大嫌いだ。

big wordと綴りが長く難解な語、もったいぶった言葉のこと。鋭い理解力がある、明敏な、洞察力のあるという意味のperspicaciousは、shrewd, perceptive, astute, sharp-wittedと言った普通の語に対するbig wordである。

I just let my mind wander, and it didn’t come back.
気が散ってしまって・・・

wanderという動詞は、ぶらつく、さまようこと。let one’s mind wanderと言えば、気を散らせる、注意力が散漫になるという意味の成句。mindには、知力、理性、思考力と言った意味もあるが、それがさまよって行ってしまい戻ってこなかった、とも解釈できる。