木村氏：「今年我が社では、ビジネス用のヘリコプターを買うそうですよ」
加藤氏：「えっ、本当ですか。それは初耳ですね。きっと出張が楽になりますよ」
Hatsu Mimi
Mr. Kimura: Kotoshi waga sha de wa bijinesu yoo no herikoputa wo kau so desu yo.
Mr. Kato: Ee hontodesu ka. Sore wa hatsu mimi desune. Kitto shuccho ga rafeu ni narimasu yo.
Mr. Kimura: I hear our company is planning to buy a helicopter.
Mr. Kato: Huh, areyou sure? That's news to me. Business trips will certainly be easier with one of those.
* * *
Hatsu mimi refers to something one hears for the first time. Other expressions proceeded by hatsu are, hatsu koi (first love), hatsu butai (debut), hatsu yuki (first snowfall of the year), hatsu shimo (first frost of the season).
Back to helicopters - in Japan helicopters used for business purposes have increased dramatically of late. In 1989 alone 1,000 were sold. This, of course, has come as good news to the Ministrys of International Trade and Industry and Foreign Affairs who have been the target of criticism from abroad over Japan's export surplus. These helicopters are imported and run about \140 million each.
Let's continue the conversation between Kimura and Kato.
Kimura: Kimi ni wa hatsu mimi kamo siremasen ne (Yes, that is probably news for you, isn't it). It seems the higher-ups, however, have been having meetings to discuss the purchase since sometime last year."
Kato: "Times certainly have changed. It used to be that helicopters were only used for news-reporting or crop dusting. " Kato and Kimura are 'salaried men' working for a medium sized company in Tokyo. Whenever they go on business trips to surrounding prefectures they have to use their own cars. Round-trip it sometimes takes 10 hours. A helicopter would shorten this to an hour. To say their working conditions would improve is clearly an understatement.
A serious problem, however, has been raised in a meeting of the board of directors:
Director A: "Maintenance costs for the helicopter will run to Y30 million a year. We're going to have to cut the budget somewhere to get that money. Where? "
Director B: "What! Sore wa mattaku no hatsu mimi desu yo. (This is absolutely the first I've heard about this! ) Director C, did you know about this? Director C: "Iya watashi ni totte mo hatsu mimi desu ne" ("Not a thing. This is a complete revelation to me as well").
To make matters worse, helicopter pilots are hi short supply: everyone is having trouble making dc until their numbers increase. Some companies ever] train pilots themselves, usually in Australia. Kyo nｫ koramu no wadai minasan ni totte mo, hatsu mimi dat ta desho ka (Was this the first time for you to hear about all of this too?)