H: Ueda describes some of the different options available in Japan for solo dining, including ramen restaurants. McMillan describes a restaurant that offers a free lunch to solo diners in a certain situation. And Wu wonders if people sometimes lie to take advantage of the offer. Collins says another factor behind the increase in solo dining is a fact that more people are traveling alone.

have one’s share of
それなりの何々がある
H: Ueda means Japan also has a good number of eating and drinking establishments for solo diners. And you can use many other verbs in place of have, such as “I’ve eaten at my share of bad restaurants. I’ve eaten at plenty of bad restaurants.” Or “I’ve made my share of mistakes.”


eatery
軽食堂、レストラン
H: This is an informal way to say a restaurant. It combines the word eat with the suffix -ery meaning a place where you do, sell, make, whatever a certain thing. Like a bakery where you bake things or a winery where you make wine. A cannery is a factory where food is put in cans.
S: eatに場所を示す接尾字の-eryをつけて口語で軽食堂のことですね。同じように-eryを付けた単語として、いまヘザーさんはwineryとかbakeryという例を挙げてくれましたね。それから、簡易食堂、安い食堂という意味ではbeaneryというのがありますね。これはもともと豆を出すレストラン。豆という栄養価の高いもの、安いもの、を出すレストランということです。それから酒を意味するboozeからboozeryと言えば酒場。luncheryというのは昼食を食べる所という意味ですね。


tailor-made for
何々に合わせて作られた
S: custom-made、tailor-made、同じことですね。


self-conscious about
何々を気にした、意識した、人目を気にして、恥ずかしがった
H: Concerned about some part of oneself, concerned about how other people view it. “I’m self-conscious about my winkles as I get older and my weight.”


can’t carry a tune in a bucket
ひどい音痴である
H: One way to say sing on key is carry a tune. So this expression plays on that meaning of carry and the meaning of physically transport something. So this is someone who can’t sing at all. Another similar expression is one’s way out of a wet paper bag. A wet bag, a wet paper bag is very weak, right. It’d be incredibly easy to get out of. But somebody is so bad at something they can’t even do that. Like, here we go again but “I can’t cook my way out of a wet paper bag.” Or “She can’t dance her way out of a wet paper bag.”
S: carry a tuneというのは正確に歌う、調子を外さない、という意味ですね。sing on keyとも言いますね。その反対がcan’t carry a tune、音痴である。それからいまヘザーさんが説明してくれたのが、one’s way out of a wet paper bag。例として挙げたのが、”I can’t cook my way out of a wet paper bag.”ですね。can’t 何々 one’s way out of a wet paper bagで、「全く何々が出来ない、無力である、力が及ばない」という意味のフレーズですね。


be stood up
すっぽかされる、待ちぼうけを食わされる
H: Have an appointment with someone else, but the other person doesn’t show up. And it’s especially common with dates. “He had a blind date on Friday but she stood him up.” And there’s a nuance of selfishness here of not doing something for a good reason. Imagine someone doesn’t show up to an appointment because of an emergency. You could say later “He didn’t stand her up. It was a family emergency.”


be left high and dry
見捨てられる
H: Be left helpless or stranded without support. “Investors were left high and dry,” for example, “when the pyramid scheme collapsed.” Or “We were left high and dry when the company withdrew the funding for our project.”


desperate
切羽詰まった、必死の
S: このビニェットではお金が無いので切羽詰まってすっぽかされたふりをする人のことをdesperateと言っているわけですね。
H: In this case desperate means you have an extreme need for something. Like “I didn’t want to take out a loan but I was desperate for cash.”


WORDS AND PHRASESで取り上げなかった語句
 

スポンサーリンク


partition
H: A partition is a divider, something put up to separate one part of a room or a car from another. Police cars, for example, have a partition between the front seats and the back ones. In my office, there are no partitions. We all sit at communal desks with no dividers between the seats.
S: 仕切りとかついたてのことですね。