00:00
Welcome to Kevin's English Room Podcast!
Hello, welcome!
Great morning again.
Yep. So I've got a message from Kanako-san today.
Okay, Kanako-san.
Which is, you know, from my Instagram account.
Which I introduced in a last episode.
Yes.
That I'm running shopping page.
Okay, yeah.
JP...
Yeah, jpnet.yamai
jpnet.yamai
@ at the beginning
@ jpnet.yamai
Okay, alright.
We're still running the shipping-free...
Okay, still doing the shipping-free thing, okay.
So...
Kevin-san, Yama-san.
Yama-san, Kevin-san, gobusata shiteimasu. Ogenki desu ka?
I've just missed an order.
Okay, got it.
I just missed an order.
Okay, okay.
Got it, got it, got it.
Question.
Do you two pray or pray?
When I was little, I often prayed to God when I had nothing else to do.
One day, I realized that it didn't work out when I asked God.
I think it's because I was asking for only the very few things that I really had nothing to do with.
So I stopped praying to God.
When I listen to English, I often hear "God" or "Jesus",
but I wonder if there are many people in the UK who feel close to God.
If you'd like, please let me know.
Congratulations on hitting 500,000 subscribers.
Thank you.
Please continue to be the same person you are.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Kamidanomi and what?
Gankake.
I've never heard of that.
Oh, Gankake?
Uh-uh.
So do you know Kamidanomi?
Yeah, it's just hoping.
Yeah.
Just hoping for God, hoping that God would help you.
Yeah, but it's kind of a little different from those who in a real Christian culture,
like praying to the God.
It's not something like those daily praying.
It's just for those people who doesn't believe in God in our usual days.
Yes.
But when things happen, people, "Oh, oh, God!"
You know, only for those occasional praying, it's Kamidanomi.
Okay.
Yeah.
And Gankake is just like I do, like I need to finish with left foot.
Those like...
Things that might bring you bad luck.
Yeah, yeah.
If you don't do it.
03:00
It's your own belief though, right?
Yeah.
Got it.
Yeah.
You need to put your shoes, like left foot first.
Wait, is it something very personal or like that's known to like general public?
Uh, something personal.
Like, like a lot of what you have?
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
What is it?
Some common Gankake things.
Like don't sleep facing wherever.
Yeah, kind of.
Yeah.
Don't put mirror in the genkan.
Yeah, kind of.
Kind of like that.
Or like if you draw the omikuji and you've got kikkyo.
Yeah.
You, you know, put your omikuji to the wall.
Yeah, you kind of...
You tie it up.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I know that.
That's kind of one Gankake.
Okay.
Those things.
Like rituals that...
Yeah.
Okay, that are believed to...
Okay, I understand.
Um, I feel like you believe them.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
I do.
You do that for yourself a lot.
Yes, I do.
So many Gankake.
And yeah.
And also I believe gods.
But I don't...
It's not that I have one, you know, god.
Right.
It's not like Christian or, you know, it's not something like that.
I have so many several gods.
It's not gods.
Like it's soul.
It's, you know.
Is this like the traditional teaching of the Japanese?
Yeah, yeah.
It's kind of Japanese Shintoism culture.
Right.
Culture.
So I'm not something like believing and, you know, praying like deeply into religious things.
But I...
Yeah.
So this is just me uneducated here.
Shintoism is what?
Is this a type of religion?
Yeah.
Is that...
Okay.
But you say yourself you're not in any religion.
Yeah, I mean, because it's kind of very natural in Japanese culture.
Like when you say "Itadakimasu," you know, you're kind of praying to be saying thanks
to the old, like foods, or, you know, god of rice, god of miso, god of wakame.
Okay.
Those lives like pork, beef, and everything, fishes.
So it's kind of very natural and it tightened like very closely to Japanese culture.
So I don't actually, you know, think about religious things.
06:01
Like I don't go to shrines like every like month or...
I'm not doing those things, but yeah.
Okay.
So it's like you just understand that what you're doing is a religious practice.
Yeah, maybe.
Or maybe I'm a little in it, maybe.
Okay.
Maybe I'm a little in Japanese Shintoism, maybe.
Because from my perspective, majority of the people who says "Itadakimasu"
aren't saying it because they're into Shintoism or they believe that what they're doing is
worshiping the gods that are related to what they're about to eat more of like it's the manner of eating food.
Okay.
For you, maybe it's the same thing.
Yeah.
But I don't, from my perspective, I think the majority of people don't really see the gods behind it.
They do it because that's the proper manner.
Yeah.
Just like how you say "Hi" to someone you know.
Just like how you fix your shoes when you...
I didn't, but when you fix your shoes, like facing the correct position when you enter somebody's house and things like that.
Just like manner, general, like not a religious manner, but more like a social manner.
Yeah.
It's very close actually.
It's a manner.
It's kind of beauty.
So it's kind of...
It's hard to explain in English, but for me it's not that different manner and like those politeness.
Right, right, right.
And those like gods things.
For you, what's being considered mannerful, socially mannerful in Japan is a manifestation of practicing it or it shows a part of Shintoism.
Yeah.
Shintoism has greatly affected the Japanese social mannerism.
True, true.
But I found one different is manner is something you do for other people, right?
But what I do is not for other people.
It's just for myself.
I just want myself to be thankful to all these, maybe shoes, maybe to the wakame, those nori.
09:03
So maybe that's a little different point, but overall it's very close.
Okay, got it.
I do not have any feeling towards any of the gods when I say "Itadakimasu".
Is that something that's frowned upon, do you think?
When you say "Itadakimasu", what do you feel?
Like do you feel nothing?
I feel like when I say "Itadakimasu", I'm appreciating the food that is given to me.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's my feeling.
There is no gods behind it.
Just thankful for the food that I have in front of me.
That's all I feel.
Yeah, that's the same to me.
Exactly, okay.
Yeah, okay.
You know, there's...
I don't...
I mean...
That's the same thing, yeah.
Okay.
Thanks for the old cows.
Yes, the farmers.
Yeah.
The one who made it.
You know, those everything.
Yeah.
Okay.
Maybe I'm a little deeply in those religious area, maybe.
But basically, I think it's not that different.
I got it, I got it, I got it.
Yeah.
All right, thanks so much.
Okay.
All right.
Well, we didn't really get to answer the question.
Yeah, actually.
Which was what?
This is as quickly as that one.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
In like 10 seconds.
Absolutely.
Christian community, it's dominant there in the US.
Yeah, yeah.
And they worship every day.
We pray.
Yeah.
In mornings, at nights, before and after every meal.
And also, like, yeah, if we come across difficulties, Christians often look at the Bible.
Yeah.
And they look for words of wisdom there.
And so God is very, very, very close and into people's lives.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
There you go.
Well, thank you.
Quick answer.
All right.
