30 December, 2012

"To cover foul-smelling things."


Here is another Japanese idiom that is particularly suitable, considering the aroma I encountered last night.
"Kusai Mono ni wa Futa o Suru"
臭いものにはふたをする   
Literally, to cover foul-smelling things.
Who remembers this from childhood? I haven't driven
to the dump with a trailer load of rubbish for a long time!

It means to opt for short-term solutions. A stop-gap or temporary fix. Shutting the door on last night's offensive smell wasn't going to make it go away, as much as I wanted it to!

1 comment:

Judie said...

When I was little, we'd come back from the dump with nearly as much as we took.
That isn't allowed any more. People here pay for a contract to collect re-usable stuff from dumps, & nobody else is allowed to take anything away. You almost have to prove it if you change your mind about dumping something!