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Monday, February 23, 2009

日常茶飯

にちじょう さはん
nichijyou sahan

Give us this day our daily bread, but if you can't do that, at least give us our Daily Yo-ji.

Today's 四字熟語 contains the Japanese equivalent of the idea of "daily bread," although... free of the religious connotations. 茶飯 (also read ちゃめし: lit. tea rice) is rice, prepared with tea and other seasonings. Brett's a big fan of お茶漬け, which is kind of the same thing, at least to my 外人 sensibilities. What makes it the equivalent of 'daily bread,' is in its simplicity.

Just as bread is perceived to be the 代表 of western cuisine, rice and tea are two of the pillars of the Japanese diet. No point in getting into the パン食、米食 debate. No matter how much you might chafe at the idea of "bread" as summing up your country's cuisine, it won't change the fact that Japanese people see it that way. Nor will it change the fact that Japanese people DON'T chafe at the idea of being gastronomically identified with rice. That's the way things are.

On a less debatable point, the addition of "日常' also helps draw the "daily bread" analogy nicely.
You can use 日常 to talk about anything that is routine, ordinary, regular, everyday to the point of being 当たり前.

Of course, the same thing could be said of the entire phrase as well.

Definition:
日常の食事。転じて毎日のありふれた物事や行動のこと。
Translation:
1. An everyday occurrence.
2. Something perfectly ordinary and expected.

Try using this with である。

例文:電車で携帯で話すことは行儀が悪いけど、携帯でメールやインターネットやゲームをすることは日常茶飯であります。
In Japan it's considered bad form to talk on your cell phone on the train, but using it for mail, the internet, or for games is about as common as rice.

4 comments:

Nirav said...

You also see this phrase as a GO-ji, 日常茶飯事 (nichijou sahanji). It's used in pretty much the same way.

jljzen88 said...

日常茶飯事 is the first thing my fiance told me when asked about this. The first thing that came to mind for me is the English "It happens like clockwork, but there is probably a better idiom out there.

Claytonian said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Claytonian said...

僕は、日本に住むのに、お茶と飯を食うのはまだ日常茶飯じゃない。

Though I live in Japan, tea and rice are still not my bread and butter.

[cheated the translation just a bit maybe]