00:00
Okay, welcome to Kevin's English Room Podcast!
So you've read this book, huh?
Yes, yes. Now I'm reading "Shitamachi Rocket" by Ikedu Jun.
You've already read the "Oretachi Hana no Baburu Gumi" or "Oretachi Baburu Ryukou Gumi"
You've already read those two?
And "Dotsuzen no Gyakushuu"
Which was the first one? In which order do you have to read these?
If you want to read as order, this is the first one.
"Oretachi Baburu Ryukou Gumi"
And the second one... "Oretachi Hana no Baburu Gumi"
And this is the third.
"Dotsuzen no Gyakushuu"
That's the third one.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And also there's one more book called "Ginryoku no Ikarosu"
I've never heard it though.
Actually the fourth one, which I borrowed from the library, and I've just returned so there's no book here.
So there's four, five series?
Actually four for "Hanzo Naoki" series.
And this is not the same story. It's about machinery.
"Shitamachi Rocket"
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Wait, wasn't that...
It's a different story.
On TV, you know how there's the first one and there's like a second "Hanzo Naoki"?
Oh yeah?
Was the second "Hanzo Naoki" about the "Shitamachi Rocket"?
No, no, no. That's a different story.
You know there's a drama called "Shitamachi Rocket"?
Right! Was "Hanzo Naoki" on that show?
No, no, no, no.
No? It was a different guy?
No. It's about the factory.
Okay.
It's a different story, but there's some element that, you know...
It's the same author?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So sometimes there is the same bank called "Hakusui Bank".
The settings are overlapping.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Wait, so "Oretachi Babel and Ryukogumi" is the...
The whole book is what we saw on television for the first "Hanzo Naoki"?
Actually, I haven't seen that drama.
I don't know how these are corresponding to each other, but...
Yeah.
So you read all that?
You read all this, man?
Yeah.
Three. Three of them.
I mean...
Four.
Four? Because you took one back.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You're on the fifth one.
Yeah, and I was about to finish this.
You know, I was in the climax, you know?
You were about to finish that, and you're still like...
How many pages is this?
You're at page 377, and it goes until...
What is that?
But you know, it's not that heavy book, you know?
It's a drama and novel, you know?
407, and you call that "about to finish"?
03:00
Yeah.
Jesus Christ.
For me, it's going to take about a week from...
Really?
Week to finish.
Well, I started reading this from last day.
Yesterday?
Yesterday, yeah.
Holy shit.
You read a lot.
You know, I went to Kake-chan's house yesterday,
and I have to go to the dentist, you know?
So I took trains a lot of times.
So while I was in the train, I've been reading this.
But train time is only like in total like two hours.
Yeah.
Something like that, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That in two hours?
Yeah.
300 pages in two hours.
You know, it's not that heavy as it looks like.
Yeah, right.
It's quite light and really fun to read.
You can fast read it.
Jesus Christ.
I was never able to read any book by fast reading.
Like that was not possible for me.
Yeah.
I just suck at the Japanese thing, so...
I know it's a little difficult when it comes to...
You know, books have like a different dialect.
Really?
Books are...
Yeah, the keioshi and like the descriptive verbs.
A little bit artistic, you know?
Really?
Yeah, I have quite a book I like to read.
There's one book that I actually bought and tried to finish,
but I only got like 10 pages in, and I was like, I gave up.
It was a book about trains, a very famous...
Hankyu...
Hankyu densha.
Densha.
I bought the book and tried to finish that book, but...
Why did you choose that one?
I don't know.
I was kind of in the mood for starting books.
Oh, that's nice.
Probably, right?
And that was...
And back then, the Hankyu densha was like the top of the chart kind of book.
Oh, really?
And I thought, let's try.
And it failed.
Yeah.
It didn't go well.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
It lasted for like about a week.
I tried to read the books whenever I had free time.
I tried to read it in the trains.
It didn't work out.
Did you have fun at least?
No, I didn't have fun.
I had to repeat the words.
I tried to read the first sentence, and it didn't really come in.
I can see the words, but the story didn't really sink in.
I had to read it twice for me to comprehend the whole thing.
It took a lot of time.
It was so much time consuming.
And I was like, okay, I'm kind of tired.
Yeah.
Right.
Right.
Thing with words.
I don't...
Maybe that was a difficult novel.
Maybe.
Right.
In that novel, the Japanese vocabularies was a little bit really artistic.
Yeah.
06:00
Like, I don't know if "keiyoshi" is the right word, but the way they describe the scene...
I can understand that.
It's kind of like...
I've never seen this kind of thing.
I've never seen this...
"Hakayui..."
"Hakayui..."
"Nani wo motoinagara..."
What was that?
"Sasageru...
Shouhankei."
I'm sure that's not Japanese.
I'm pretty sure that's not Japanese.
But to me, it's the same.
That's what they're telling me.
Yeah.
I know there are some books that are written really, really complicated.
Yeah.
What's the most sophisticated language?
This is the "Goriojiisan."
It's written by Balzac.
And I really love this, actually.
Is he Japanese?
He's French guy.
It's translated.
Yeah, yeah.
But this was...
You know...
It's not that actually...
Yeah.
This is it?
I think this was quite complicated and I...
Shit.
You know, I struggled to read.
Why did you struggle?
The vocabularies?
Or the way they're saying it?
The phrases are really complicated and hard to understand.
Especially at the beginning part.
The word "drama"...
Should I go from here?
I feel like this is pretty...
The word "drama" is used to describe the reader's fear and sympathy.
It's a very popular literature these days.
It's so boring that it's used...
That was fucking...
It's not over yet.
It's not over yet.
It's a bit of a heavy word because it's used.
But still...
But still, I have to use the word "drama" here.
Well, it's not that complicated phrase.
I had no idea what I just said.
I have no idea what that meant.
Wow.
It's like a complex sentence in English for Japanese people.
Right, right.
The sentences were too complex.
It used too much connecting words.
What the fuck?
But it's not that difficult phrase in this book.
Ah, like here.
Wow, I think this sentence is really difficult.
I see.
Maybe between the Montmartre Hill and the Mont Rouge Hill,
there was a soft valley called Paris, which was about to fall off and be torn down.
09:12
But it may not be evaluated.
But there, there is no doubt that it is a place of suffering and suffering.
What?
It is a place of suffering.
What is this?
Joy.
Joy?
It's a crab that is a reflection of joy.
Wow.
I'm guessing that's not the most difficult one.
Not that...yeah, yeah, yeah.
Can you find a difficult one?
What a challenge.
Challenge a difficult one.
Okay.
You know, this is actually written in...
It's a classic novel, actually.
The classic one is hard to read.
That was so difficult.
I still don't know what the book is about.
Still.
Like...
That is so difficult.
Yeah, like, especially this beginning part wasn't, like, fun to read.
It was really complicated and hard to...
Did you have to read repeatedly?
Yeah, actually I tried to read this when I was a junior high or high school student.
Yeah?
But I failed to read this.
Oh, you did?
The beginning part was too...like, too...
It took me so much time to read it, and I stopped reading after that time.
Yeah, I understand.
Yeah.
Now you know how I feel.
That's how I feel about all these books.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's so tough.
Like...
So, it's like...
There isn't a certain spot that's extremely difficult.
It's just the whole...
Right.
The way they explain it is just really complex and really, like...
True.
Yeah, indirect.
And words that they...I mean, he used...
The keiyoshi, right?
Yeah, keiyoshi or meishi or whatever.
Meishi.
Are, you know, difficult.
Yeah.
And especially at the beginning part, you know, actually nothing is going to be happened.
Nothing happens?
Like, as a story, it's a kind of, like, boring one.
Oh, really?
12:00
Like, not any, like, roller coaster things.
Ups and downs or...
The way he writes, but with no emotion.
It's like a little room boom kind of.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like, white phrases.
But, like, in total, like, after you read it, it was good.
Yeah, like, the after part, like, you know, in this middle end of part.
It was amazing.
You should try to read it.
Okay, yeah.
Recommend me one.
I do recommend you this book written by Akiko Yoshisano.
Do you know who it is?
No, never heard of that guy.
It's a she.
Yeah, it's a she.
You can read it anywhere you want.
That's a small word.
Yeah, yeah.
I think that's a...
Well, this is an old book actually, and written in old, little old Japanese style, you know?
In an age where democracy is established...
What is this?
Guzu... Guzu...
Guzu Su...
The phenomenon of the thought of Guzu Su is, of course,
Is it "of course"?
Of course?
It's "of course".
Yeah.
Of course.
The thought of the
"of course" is also
a self-consolation...
I think it's something that has to be
removed as a self-consolation.
The fuck was that?
The fuck?
I just read one sentence and it fucking blew my mind!
The fuck do you...
Yeah, that is so...
This is not Japanese.
This is not Japanese.
I don't think it's the same...
I have no problem communicating in Japan.
I have daily life.
Zero problems.
I have zero.
You can go to anywhere you want.
Buy anything you want.
I meet somebody new.
I come in their cold, be like, "Hey, konnichiwa."
Have some free time.
No suspicion of me being a non-native speaker.
And I can't read shit in this book.
This is like...
This must be a different category in Japanese
that I'm not familiar with.
There must be a different category.
We have to...
Impossible!
No one talks like this!
Literally no one!
Yeah, not many people talk like that, but...
Jesus Christ.
Sometimes when I listen to debates in Japanese,
it's very difficult for me.
Like...
"~teki" is...
"~teki" is...
"~teki" is a little difficult.
Maybe that's the same for you on the other side.
15:02
Right!
English debating...
For me, the most difficult one is the TV show
which talks about economical, political things in English.
They speak really fast.
It was so complicated.
Right.
Lots of "senmon" yoga, right?
And I said "oh."
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Alright, that's about 10 minutes.
Yeah.
Alright! Thanks for listening, guys!
