Asameshi Mae (Before Breakfast)

Today I'd like to talk about the Japanese term "asameshi mae."

"Asameshi" of "asameshi mae" means "breakfast," "mae" means "before."

This term sometimes means "before breakfast" literally, but it often means that it is quite easy to do something.

Since you are hungry and don't have much time before eating breakfast, you can only do simple tasks.

In particular, we had meals two times a day until the middle of the Edo period, so we couldn't bring out our real strengths before breakfast.

From this fact, "asameshi mae" (before breakfast) came to mean easy tasks that you can finish before you eat breakfast.

朝飯前

今日は「朝飯前」という言葉を紹介します。

「朝飯前」は、文字通り朝食の前の時間を表すことに加えて、何かをするのがきわめて簡単であることも意味します。

朝飯を食べる前は、空腹かつ時間も限られているため、簡単な仕事しかできません。

特に、日本は江戸時代中頃まで一日二食であったため、朝飯前には力が入りません。

このことから、「朝飯前」は「朝食を食べる前でも仕上げられる簡単な仕事」を意味するようになりました。