Learn about visiting a shrine
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Yoshi,Takase: おはよう東京。 |
| Yoshi: ヨシです。 |
| Takase: タカセです。 |
| Peter: Peter here. Survival phrases # 40. We are joined again by the Nagasaki connection. Takase san, what are we talking about today? |
| Takase: 神社 |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Peter: Wow! We are talking about Shrines. Last week we gave you? |
| Takase: お寺 |
| Peter: ‘Temples’. And this week we are talking about ‘Shrines’. Now, for a foreigner visiting Japan, it may seem quite intimidating when you show up at a shrine, and it’s a sacred place so you don’t want to do anything wrong or anything to offend anybody inadvertently. So, what we’re going to do today is give you a conversation about, asking what to do at a shrine. Last week, we asked what to do at a temple. Now, last week we also didn’t have enough time to cover some of the customs, why they do it, and things like that. So today, in addition to conversation we’re going to cover those topics. Now, today’s conversation is very similar to what we had last week. So, for those of you who caught last week’s show, this should be like a review with just some new words in there. For those of you who haven’t, please listen to survival phrases #39 before you listen to this one. Or, afterwards, vice versa works for us too. Now we’re going to have a short dialogue between Yoshi san and Takase san which takes place at a shrine. Alright? Here we go. |
| Yoshi: すみません。お参りの仕方を教えてください。 |
| Takase: あ、いいですよ。最初に、この水で手を洗います。その後、本殿に行きます。そこでお金を入れて鈴を鳴らします。それから2回礼をして，2回手を叩き、もう一度礼をします。 |
| Yoshi: すみません。もう一度お願いします。ゆっくりお願いします。 |
| Takase: 最初に、この水で手を洗います。 |
| Yoshi: 最初に、この水で手を洗います。はい、分かりました。 |
| Takase: 次に、本殿に行きます。 |
| Yoshi: すみません。本殿は何ですか？ |
| Takase: あの建物のことです。 |
| Yoshi: はい、分かりました。 |
| Takase: そこでお金を入れて、鈴を鳴らします。 |
| Yoshi: そこで、お金を入れて、鈴を鳴らします。 |
| Takase: それから、2回礼をして、2回手を叩き、もう一度礼をします。 |
| Yoshi: それから、2回礼をして、2回手を叩き、もう一度礼をします。はい、分かりました。ありがとうございました。 |
| Peter: Now, we’re going to give you the conversation one more time and this time. This time I’ll put the English in. |
| Yoshi: すみません。 |
| Peter: ‘Excuse me’. |
| Yoshi: お参りの仕方を教えてください。 |
| Peter: ‘Please tell me the way to visit this shrine’. |
| Takase: あ、いいですよ。 |
| Peter: ‘Oh, sure’. |
| Takase: 最初に、この水で手を洗います。 |
| Peter: ‘First, wash your hands with this water’. |
| Takase: その後、本殿に行きます。 |
| Peter: ‘After that go to the Honden’. |
| Takase: そこでお金を入れて |
| Peter: ‘There, put money in’. |
| Takase: 鈴を鳴らします。 |
| Peter: ‘And ring the bell’. |
| Takase: それから2回礼をして |
| Peter: ‘Then, bow twice’. |
| Takase: 2回手を叩き |
| Peter: ‘Clap twice’. |
| Takase: もう一度礼をします。 |
| Peter: ‘And bow once again’. |
| Yoshi: すみません。もう一度お願いします。ゆっくりお願いします。 |
| Peter: ‘Excuse me, one more time please? Slowly please’. |
| Takase: 最初に、この水で手を洗います。 |
| Peter: ‘First, wash your hands with this water’. |
| Yoshi: 最初に、この水で手を洗います |
| Peter: ‘First, I wash my hands with this water’. |
| Yoshi: はい、分かりました。 |
| Peter: ‘Yes, I understand’. |
| Takase: その後、本殿に行きます。 |
| Peter: ‘After that, go to the Honden’. |
| Yoshi: すみません。本殿は何ですか？ |
| Peter: ‘Excuse me, what’s ‘Honden?’’. |
| Takase: あの建物のことです。 |
| Peter: ‘It’s that building’. |
| Yoshi: はい、分かりました。 |
| Peter: ‘Yes, I understand’. |
| Takase: そこでお金を入れて、鈴を鳴らします。 |
| Peter: ‘There, put money in and ring the bell’. |
| Yoshi: そこでお金を入れて、鈴を鳴らします。 |
| Peter: ‘There, put money in and ring the bell’. |
| Takase: それから、2回礼をして、2回手を叩き |
| Peter: ‘Then, bow twice, clap twice’. |
| Takase: もう一度礼をします。 |
| Peter: ‘And bow once again’. |
| Yoshi: それから、2回礼をして、2回手を叩き |
| Peter: ‘Then, bow twice, clap twice’. |
| Yoshi: もう一度礼をします。 |
| Peter: ‘And bow once again’. |
| Yoshi: はい、分かりました。 |
| Peter: ‘Yes, I understand’. |
| Yoshi: ありがとうございました。 |
| Peter: ‘Thank you’. |
| Peter: Now, comparing today’s conversation with the conversation about temples, it’s quite apparent that visiting a temple and visiting a shrine are two different things. Right Takase san? |
| Takase: Yes. |
| Peter: What’s different about the shrine? What are we doing at the shrine? |
| Takase: You ring a bell and clap your hands in shrines. |
| Peter: Which do you like better? |
| Takase: I prefer shrines. |
| Peter: Yeah! It’s fun to ring the bell! |
| Takase: Yes. |
| Peter: We don’t have to be bashful. But speaking as a foreigner, the first time you go up there, I get nervous. You know, because you’re not alone? Any advice for everybody out there? Should I be nervous? |
| Takase: No, you can do whatever you want to do. |
| Peter: That’s the spirit! |
| Takase: Yes. |
| Peter: Take Takase sans great advice. Just go up there and do it! What we’re going to do now is we’re going to take a closer look at today’s conversation. Now, on purpose we had Yoshi san, who’s playing the foreigner, repeat everything that Takase san, the native Japanese was saying. And this was so that you could hear the phrase over and over. Now, what we’re going to do is we’re going to walk our way through the parts of the conversation. Some of it again, is similar to last week but we’ll just give a quick review. Yoshi san, first line? |
| Yoshi: すみません。 |
| Peter: Now, this is in every single survival phrase. I think so? Takase san, everyone? |
| Takase: Yes, every time. |
| Peter: It’s a really great phrase. This is what you want, again, getting someone’s attention, ‘excuse me’, bump someone? ‘Excuse me, I’m sorry’. Followed by? |
| Yoshi: お参りの仕方を教えてください。 |
| Peter: And last week we took this sentence apart. Again at the end we have the verb in its てform, the verb is ‘to teach’. Followed by ください, ‘please, please teach’. And it can also be interpreted as, ‘please tell’. And please tell us what? Yoshi san? |
| Yoshi: お参りの仕方 |
| Peter: ‘The way of visiting’. |
| Peter: And this time, Yoshi san, what are we visiting? |
| Yoshi: 神社 |
| Peter: ‘Shrine’. This is followed by? Takase san? |
| Takase: あ、いいですよ。 |
| Peter: ‘Ah, sure’. いい is Japanese for good. So, the literal translation is, ‘ah, it’s good’. But again, we have to interpret. Yoshi san is asking to be taught about the temple. Takase san’s answer is, ‘it’s good’. Again, literal. It should be interpreted as, ‘It’s ok, sure I’ll do it’. Followed by? |
| Takase: 最初にこの水で手を洗います。 |
| Peter: Again, same as in the temple episode. ‘First, wash your hands with this water’. Now, a couple of things we want to stop and point here. Takase san, why do we wash our hands before we visit the temple? |
| Takase: Because you are dirty. |
| Peter: Very diplomatic way of putting it. We have to purify ourselves. |
| Yoshi: Right. |
| Peter: Now, there’s a certain way to purify yourself, correct? Can you tell us about that? |
| Yoshi: If you go to a shrine or temple you see this like, little bath type of thing. |
| Peter: Exactly, kind of like a stone trough. It’s about, how high is it? About two feet? |
| Yoshi: I think it’s about maybe three feet. |
| Peter: Ok, pretty big right? Accessible to more than one person, usually more than one person at a time? |
| Yoshi: Yes, and you see those 柄杓(ひしゃく) |
| Peter: A ‘ladle’, but it’s a very long ladle. The wood is about two feet and on the end is a cup. And the cup can hold a decent amount of water So what do we do with this ladle? |
| Yoshi: First you grab it with your right hand. |
| Peter: The hand is important here. |
| Yoshi: Then, you scoop the water and wash your left hand with it. |
| Peter: Ok, right washes left. |
| Yoshi: Now, you clean your left hand. |
| Peter: The left hand is purified. Ok. |
| Yoshi: Now, you switch your hand. Take the ladle with your left hand and wash your right hand. |
| Peter: Now, both hands are purified. |
| Yoshi: Yes, then change your hand again. Take the ladle in your right hand and scoop some more water and put it on your left. And that’s for washing your mouth. |
| Peter: Ah, so you put it inside your left hand. |
| Yoshi: Yes. |
| Peter: So, you cup your left hand and you take the ladle in your right hand and you put water in. And you put the water into your mouth. Do you drink it? |
| Yoshi: Ah, no. Just wash it. |
| Peter: And then? Where do you spit it out? |
| Yoshi: They usually have a water outlet. |
| Peter: Like a gutter or something? |
| Yoshi: Yeah. |
| Peter: Ok, so you don’t spit the water back in with the other water, correct? |
| Yoshi: Correct. |
| Peter: Ok. |
| Yoshi: And you usually want to take the water you put into your mouth from the part where the water is freshly coming out. |
| Peter: So, from the fountain? |
| Yoshi: Ah,Yes. |
| Peter: From the running water where it’s exiting. |
| Yoshi: I suggest so. |
| Peter: Yeah I think that's a really good idea. |
| Yoshi: But I heard some people wash fruit and dishes, right Takase san? With this water? |
| Takase: Yeah, I heard Yoshi does it. |
| Yoshi: I heard Takase san washes her fruit in this holy water. |
| Takase: And he washes his dishes! |
| Peter: I thought it was his clothes. When he comes back to work, we’re right across the street from 日枝神社. So, when he comes back with wet clothes we know he got thrown out of the 神社. |
| Yoshi: Correct. |
| Peter: Ok, we’re getting a little exaggerated here. Alright Takase san, are we now clean? |
| Takase: Yes! |
| Peter: Alright, now that we’re clean, what do we do next? |
| Takase: その後、本殿に行きます。 |
| Peter: The first part of this その後 again, we had this last week. After that, then we have, can you give us the word one more time? |
| Takase: 本殿 |
| Peter: ‘Honden’. This is the main building of a shrine. Last week, what did we have? |
| Takase: 本堂 |
| Peter: The main building of a temple. So they’re different. Give it to us one more time? |
| Takase: 本殿 |
| Peter: For a ‘shrine’. |
| Takase: 本堂 |
| Peter: For a ‘temple’. Possibly a way to remember this is, can you give us the Japanese for, ‘temple’? |
| Takase: お寺 |
| Peter: It starts with the honorific prefix お. What’s the main building of a temple? |
| Takase: 本堂 |
| Peter: So again, it ends with an お. So maybe, this could be a good mnemonic that you can remember this by. What do you think, Takase san? |
| Takase: Well I didn’t know it until last week that you called the building ‘Hondo’. |
| Peter: But you remembered it! So it works! |
| Takase: Thank you Peter. |
| Peter: You’re welcome, Takase! Thank you! You’re the one who taught us. What a glorious day. Ok, then this is followed by? |
| Takase: に行きます。 |
| Peter: ‘Go to’. Next sentence? |
| Takase: そこで、お金を入れて |
| Peter: ‘There you put I money’. Now, this is the same exact phrase we had from last week with the temples. And, I notice that whether it be, ‘shrines’, 神社, or ‘temples’ お寺, you’re putting in money. Now, my question for you is, how much do we put in? You know, Japan has a lot of coins and they have a lot of bills. Actually not so many bills, 1000-yen, 5000 and 10,000. What do most people put in? Bills? Coins? Help us out here. Yoshi san? |
| Yoshi: I think it’s common to put coins. Maybe not over 100-yen. |
| Peter: I like that! Tell me more? |
| Yoshi: Like a dollar or less but some people, I think it all depends on you and how much you are wishing for this wish. |
| Peter: So wait, you go up there. Are you praying or are you wishing? |
| Yoshi: What’s the difference? |
| Peter: Ok wait. Let’s just take one thing at a time but we’re going to address this in a minute. Are you actually praying? Or wishing? We’ll address this in a minute, let’s finish up with the money here. So, 100-yen which is about 1 US dollar? |
| Yoshi: Japan has six coins and I think it’s common to put 円 which is 5-yen or 10円 like 10-yen. |
| Peter: And just one coin? Or a handful of coins? |
| Yoshi: It could be just one. |
| Peter: Ok, let’s really get to the bottom of this. Yoshi san, the last time you went to a temple or a shrine, how much money did you put in? |
| Yoshi: I think I put 50-yen, because I had it in my pocket. |
| Peter: Takase san, how about yourself? |
| Takase: ！I put 5-yen, because I didn’t have 10-yen coins. |
| Peter: So, if you had 10-yen you would have went with 10-yen? |
| Takase: Yes. |
| Peter: Ok. So Yoshi san, is there a special way to put the money in? |
| Yoshi: I think there is. Although I’m not so sure about this. Somewhere I found this article that you’re supposed to put each coin, like, from 1-yen up to 50-yen, that makes 66-yen. |
| Peter: Very interesting. We’re going to check this out further and you can stop by the pdf for more information about this. Now, usually what most people do is they walk up to the place where you put the money in and you just drop the money in. But, last year I went to Asakusa for new year’s. Takase san, give me an idea of how many people are going to be there? |
| Takase: You can’t move. |
| Peter: You really can’t move. So, you couldn’t get to the front so people were just throwing their coins. They were lined up about ten people deep and they would just get to the area and just start throwing their coins. Again, that’s kind of a rare case but normally you want to walk up and drop your coin in. And then back to this, are you wishing or praying? Yoshi san, help us out here? Are you wishing or praying when you drop the money in? |
| Yoshi: I think you are praying to God and wishing your wishes. |
| Peter: So, when you go up there and you put the money in, you ask to receive it, or you’re hoping that something will happen? |
| Yoshi: You can, I think. |
| Peter: Yeah, I remember going to a few and asking that things work out a certain way. Ok now, we’re running out of time, let's finish up here. Takase san, what do we have next? |
| Takase: 鈴を鳴らします。 |
| Peter: ‘Ring the bell’. The word for ‘bell’ is? |
| Takase: 鈴 |
| Peter: Break it down? |
| Takase: す・ず、鈴 |
| Peter: And, we mark this with the object marker? |
| Takase: を |
| Peter: And, the word ‘to ring’ is? |
| Takase: 鳴らす |
| Peter: That’s the dictionary form. Break it down? |
| Takase: な・ら・す、鳴らす |
| Peter: And, here we have the polite form. |
| Takase: 慣らします |
| Peter: Next sentence. |
| Takase: それから2回礼をして |
| Peter: ‘Then bow twice’. What’s the word for ‘bow’? |
| Takase: 礼 |
| Peter: Break it down. |
| Takase: れ・い、礼 |
| Peter: And here we’re doing it two times. So we have? |
| Takase: 2回、礼をする |
| Peter: That’s followed by? |
| Takase: 2回手を叩き |
| Peter: ‘Clap your hands twice’. The word for ‘two times’ is? |
| Takase: 2回 |
| Peter: The word for ‘hand’ we had before? |
| Takase: 手 |
| Peter: And, it’s actually ‘to strike’, the verb in this sentence. Which is? |
| Takase: 叩く |
| Peter: That’s the dictionary form. Here we have? |
| Takase: 叩き |
| Peter: The phrase? |
| Takase: 手を叩き |
| Peter: Actually means, ‘hands strike’, ‘hands hit’. But again, we have to interpret here, ‘when you hit your hands together they make a clapping sound’ and that’s where we get ‘clap’. Followed by? |
| Takase: もう一度、礼をします |
| Peter: ‘Bow once again’. もう一度. This is from our favourite expression! Takase san? |
| Takase: もう一度お願いします。 |
| Peter: ‘Once more’, ‘Bow once more’. So, when you go to a shrine, you walk up, you put your money in, you ring the bell, bow twice, clap twice, and bow once. Now we’re going to see if we can get Yoshi san doing this. Would you like to see that, Takase san? |
| Takase: Yes. |
| Peter: Ok, we can’t turn that down. So, again it’s just going to be talking head video, we’ll see about getting a video or something up for you on the website |
| Takase: やったー！ |
Outro |
| Peter: Alright! That’s going to do it for today! |
| Yoshi: またね。 |
| Takase: また明日。 |
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