# 戦争のような忙しさ



## Kala Keike

Hi everyone,

I am reading a text about street cleaners and exterminators in Japanese and have come across the following sentence which is completely confusing me:

ネズミの駆除の場合、短い時間にネズミをとるための特殊な装置をしかけたり、かかったネズミを処理したりするのだから、？？のようないぞがしさだという。

The '??' means that there are 2 kanji at that part of the text that are too unclear (fuzzy) on the photocopy I have to be legible.

I would really appreciate any help on this sentence.

Thanks in advance
Kala


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## uchi.m

師走のようないそがしさ, perhaps？ It means _very busy_.

Uchi.m


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## Kala Keike

No the second kanji is 争　the first kanji has the right hand side part of　戦　in it but I can't see the rest of that kanji.

Thank you


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## uchi.m

Wouldn't it be, therefore, sensō? I am taking for granted the left hand side part.


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## Kala Keike

I know that seems like it would and should be sensō but I can just about see that it's not, I have searched my denshijishou but I cannot find any kanji that may resemble the one in the text.

Are you able to help me with the grammar of this sentence without that kanji at all, especially the part that says sogashisadatoiu, even if you just replace the missing kanji with (noun)?

Kala


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## uchi.m

Kala Keike said:


> ネズミの駆除の場合、短い時間にネズミをとるための特殊な装置をしかけたり、かかったネズミを処理したりするのだから、？？のようないぞがしさだという。


？？のようないぞがしさだという。 = I say it is a ??-like kind of hurry


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## uchi.m

競争, perhaps? It means _competition _in Japanese


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## Kala Keike

this is what I think the first kanji looks like but I cannot find this anywhere. Also thank you for your help with the grammar, I cannot believe I couldn't see that the word was isogashii.

Thank you
Kala


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## uchi.m

試走, perhaps? Preliminary race


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## Flaminius

If it does not look like 戦争, then perhaps it is 戦場のようないそがしさ?

War or battlefield is a common Japanese metaphor for being worked up with a lot of work.


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## Ocham

Here is the site which seems to have the original text ↓. It really says 戦争のようないそがしさ.

http://det.tjfsu.edu.cn/j_course_2/book_3/lesson_3/3_3_i.htm

This is the site for learning Japanese, but is administered by Chinese. There are not a few expressions and kanji (Chinese characters in true sense of it) that I don't use in my daily life and I can't understand. Some of the topics, 路上のネズミの駆除 for instance, seems quite alien to us, at least to our modern life.

戦争のような忙（いそが）しさ is acceptable and can be understood, but is not commonly used among us.


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## uchi.m

I would say it sounds unnatural.


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## Arui Kashiwagi

I'd prefer "戦場のような", but "戦争のような" also seems idiomatic enough to me. Just my impression, though.


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## uchi.m

Wouldn't it be better if the wording were 目の回る忙しさのようみたい instead? I don't see how a war can relate to the catching of rats.


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## Flaminius

That should be a different expression, 目の回るような忙しさだ.  Like I wrote above, 戦場 and 戦争 are common metaphors for being very busy.  It is so perhaps because you have to do a lot of things all at once in a battle.

Edit:
I don't sense anything that makes my doubt that the text was written by a non-native.  It does have air of high-handedness that comes straight from a textbook for school children (the author waters down the essay for children to better understand his points, yuck), but that is probably considered the appropriate level to prepare foreign Japanese learners for examinations like JLPT.


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## Hiro Sasaki

猫の手を借りたいぐらい　忙しい。I 'm so busy and I would like to have a cat help me.

テンテコ舞の忙しさだ。


盆と正月　一緒に来たような忙しさだ。

Ｈｉｒｏ　Sasaki


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## uchi.m

Thanks, Hiro-san.


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