Today I am in the mood for translating so I decided to translate a traditional Japanese story called Manju Kowai. Below is my translation. Enjoy.
Manju are scary
Manju are Japanese sweet buns that go well with green tea
Originally taken from: http://www.geocities.co.jp/HeartLand-Gaien/7211/Japanese/manju.html
One night at a local inn and bar a group of men came together for a drink. They decided it would be fun telling each what they are scared of.
“I’m afraid of snakes. I can’t stand they way they move.”
“I don’t like tanuki because they can change form into monsters.”
“I hate spiders. I can’t stand their sticky webs.”
“I can’t stand bats. I don’t trust things the fly around at night.”
“I simply hate caterpillars. They are always hiding on the underside of leaves.”
“As for me, I don’t like ants. The fact that they move in a long line like that is creepy.”
As everyone was telling what they were afraid of, there was but one man that remained silent.
“Come on, Matsu! What are you afraid of?”
“Afraid? I’m not afraid of anything.”
“Not even snakes, spiders or ghosts?”
“Nope. Not even close to scared of those things. You should wrap a snake around your head to cool yourself down when you get a headache. When a tanuki jumps out at you as a ghost you should drag it to a river, clean it up real good and present it to your friends. You should stir up your natto with the legs of any spider you come across. You should use bats as an umbrella. You should poke a stick into a caterpillar and make it into a toothbrush. ”
Suddenly the man stopped talking.
“What’s wrong?”
“I remembered there is one thing I am afraid of.”
“Well, come out with it! What are you afraid of?”
“I . . . I’m afraid of manju.”
“Manju? Is that some sort of animal?”
“No! I am talking about the sweet! I get sick just thinking about them.”
Matsu’s face started getting paler and paler.
“Ah! I feel terrible after thinking of those things! I am going to go for a sleep in the other room.”
Matsu ran into the other room and jumped into a futon.
All the other people had a really good laugh when they saw what happened to Matsu. They all agreed they wanted to play a trick on him.
They all ran into the city and bought up every manju that they could find. Everything from manju made from Japanese rice wine to manju made from buckwheat and even manju used for funerals.
They brought all of those manju together and put them on a tray. One of them snuck into Matsu’s room and put them next to him. They all then laid back and waited for the fun to happen.
“Hey! Matsu! Wake up! It’s time to go.
“OK. I’ll get ready, but promise me you won’t say anything more about manju!”
“What ever you say. We won’t say another thing.”
That is when they heard Matsu yell.
“Oh no! Manju! My room is filled with manju!”
Everyone in the other room was laughing at the little trick they played.
“Ah! How did this happen! You promised me! I’m so scared of manju!”
The more Matsu yelled the more the others laughed.
“Ah! Rice wine manju! So scary!”
“Ah! Chestnut manju! I can’t believe this!”
“Ah! These manju are so yumm. . . scary!”
The other’s figured out something when wrong with there little prank so they looked into Matsu’s room.
“You look so happy eating all the manju that we bought. Come on, Matsu. What are you actually afraid of?”
“At the moment I am afraid of hot green tea.”
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