(Photo: Sarah Dorweiler/Unsplash | Text: David/ArtisanEnglish.jp)
YouTube / iTunes / Spotify / Radio Public / Pocket Casts / Google Podcasts / Breaker / Overcast
Listen to ArtisanEnglish.jp posts & lesson intros here.
Phrase: As snug as a bug in a rug
The weather lady forecasts cold weather for this week.
She said it might even snow at higher elevations in the Kansai area.
If we do have a cold snap, I have no worries because I’ll be as snug as a bug in a rug beneath my beloved kotatsu.
I find it very hard to believe that many of my students in Japan, especially Tokyo, do not have a kotatsu in their house.
It’s one of the best Japanese inventions that the world never adopted.
Isn’t it traditional to spend the New Year holidays snug as a bug in a rug with the family huddled under the kotatsu and everyone slowly peeling and eating mikans?
The mikans are Arida Mikans from Wakayama, naturally.
That gives one a very comfortable and cozy image, which is what the phrase snug as a bug in a rug means precisely – to be very comfortable and cozy.
Apparently, the phrase originates from the idea of moth larvae comfortably wrapped up in a blanket or carpet, I suppose, as they eat holes in it.
Like or follow ArtisanEnglish.jp on social media.
They are warm, comfortable, safe and have a generous food supply to get them through the winter.
By the way, why have Japanese people moved away from the traditional kotatsu?
Is it because they see someone ensconced under a kotatsu as being lazy?
That’s what one lady told me.
Or is it because Japanese homes are more Western than they originally were, and a kotatsu no longer fits their living rooms’ esthetic?
Perhaps one of these days, people will develop a nostalgia for them, and kotatsu will return to popularity.
Until then, I’ll be as snug as a bug in a rug all winter long.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least an 8th-grade education (age 13 – 14).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 63.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.