Tag: Yomiuri Komachi

Translated from Japanese. The forum these are published on have mass participation from members, so there’s no “one answer”. I like translating these for fun, not for any real reason.
Original story: http://komachi.yomiuri.co.jp/t/2013/0309/578766.htm?g=06

I belong to a hobby club that does both volunteer work and sports. After club activities we go out for lunch together. There is a woman, I’ll call her A, who joined a few months ago. When we were about to leave for lunch I invited her along, but she said “No thanks,” and left. I guessed she had her own plans that day, so I asked her again the next time. She refused again. The next time someone else invited her, but she turned him down. After that yet another person asked to come along, but again she said no.

It occurred to us that maybe she had some personal reasons for turning us down, or maybe she just didn’t want to hang out with us. Anyway, we stopped asking her to join us.

Today after club activities, A came up to B (another member) and I and asked us why we weren’t asking her out to lunch any more. Her expression was sad but her attitude showed she was angry.

B and I told her in surprise that we had stopped asking because we figured it wasn’t convenient for her. B added, “But you can come along today if it’s okay with you,” but A snapped, “I’m not coming! And I won’t be coming to lunch in the future either, but it’s only normal to ask me anyway, isn’t it? I feel like I’m being excluded…” she told us with tears in her eyes. Then she walked off and went home.

Should we invite her every time even though we know she won’t come?

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Translated from Japanese.

Original story: http://komachi.yomiuri.co.jp/t/2013/0318/580634.htm?g=04

I am 33 years old and 3 months (9 weeks) pregnant. My boyfriend works in the same company and we’d been dating for 9 months when I got pregnant. We hadn’t been using protection for the past couple of months because we planned to get married if I got pregnant. That’s why as soon as we found out I was pregnant we started making preparations for the wedding. We announced the news to our respective parents, started looking for a place to live and bought each other wedding rings that cost a few hundred thousand yen each (approx. $1000).
Unfortunately after 5 days my boyfriend made a sudden confession: “I have a child who I officially acknowledged 5 years ago. I pay 30,000 yen ($320) in support directly into my ex-girlfriend’s account every month.” He apologized for not telling me earlier, but said he didn’t trust me enough until now.

What happened was that he and his girlfriend stopped using protection right before they broke up and she got pregnant right away. She called him a month after the breakup, told him she was going to have his baby and asked him to marry her. He refused. After the baby was born his ex-girlfriend;s lawyer asked him to take a DNA test. The baby was his so after a court case he voluntarily acknowledged the child.

For my part I just can’t understand why he didn’t tell me something this important before I got pregnant. My parents are furious too and are wondering why he hasn’t apologized to them till now. They don’t trust him and are trying to persuade me to abort the baby and sue my boyfriend for compensation. His parent on the other hand haven’t contacted me, even though they know what happened.

I don’t want to fight and end up hating him just to get a little compensation money, but it’s always been my dream to have a normal, happy married life, and I can’t imagine having that with him now. My baby has done nothing wrong so I can’t abort it but I don’t think I can build a family with someone I don’t trust. He still wants to marry me.

If there’s anything I can do or something I haven’t thought of, please advise me. Please.

[do not reply]

Translated from Japanese.
Original story here: http://komachi.yomiuri.co.jp/t/2013/0316/580192.htm?g=06

Last December the man next door asked my husband to help him change his car tyres, claiming he couldn’t get a tyre-changing appointment anywhere else for a week. Bikes and cars are my husband’s hobby so he has a lot of tools. I’m sure that’s why the guy next door asked him to do it. In the end our neighbor stood inside his nice warm house while my husband did the changing alone. As thanks we received… 3 apples.

Today the same man came to ask for help removing a tyre. When my husband went over he found out the car tyre in question actually belonged to the man’s son-in-law, who was over visiting from the next prefecture! As usual the neighbor, his dauther and his son-in-law just stood around and gawked while my husband did all the work.

I got angry and told my husband to tell them to go to a gas station or car parts shop instead. My husband said he was surprised too, because he thought it was his neighbor he was doing the favor for.

A few minutes ago the neighbor’s daughter came over with a cheap swiss roll that can’t have cost more than 1000 yen ($12) and said “We’ll be counting on you again next time.”

None of the other neighbors come to ask us for help. There are several repair shops and car dealers in the area.

We moved back to my husband’s hometown in the countryside after he retired last year. He says he can’t turn them down because he doesn’t want to spoil neighborhood relations.

I’m not particularly interested in having neighborly relations with people like those but my husband says we’ll be living here for a while so we need to get along. I was furious. “Does this mean you’ll be changing their tyres every year?” I asked him.

They have two other cars as well. Isn’t there a nice way to turn them down?
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Agony aunt story translated from Japanese:
Original story: http://komachi.yomiuri.co.jp/t/2013/0315/580044.htm?g=06

Big fight with my mother-in-law. My husband won’t take my side. Should I divorce him?

I live with my child, my husband and my mother-in-law. The house is in my mother-in-law’s name and we pay her 50,000 yen ($526) a month for living expenses. I’ve never gotten along with her so I try not to talk to her unless absolutely necessary.

Whenever she says something nasty to me, my husband says it’s my bad attitude that provokes her to find fault with me. He never takes my side. It seems he can’t stand up to his mother because she paid off a debt of 2 million yen ($21,000) from his bachelor days.   An incident happened three days ago and she suddenly hit my face when she was drunk. I was so enraged I hit back without thinking. Things got out of hand and the police were called.

When I explained what happened to the police, they agreed my mother-in-law was at fault. However since it was a domestic dispute they asked us to solve it ourselves. My husband came home in a hurry and I explained everything to him as well. He responded, “It was your fault for taking a drunk person seriously. Apologize to my mother. If you won’t, get out!”

I took my child and went back to my parents’ house. My mother tells me to put up with whatever it takes to avoid a divorce, but I can’t do this any more.

My husband gives me all the money he makes, and our child loves him. I’m unemployed so I’m worried about life after divorce. What should I do?

[do not reply]

Translator’s note: The writer doesn’t state the child’s genre, so it’s a bit annoying to have to translate the term “my child” when I would normally write “my son” or “my daughter.”