木村：誰か、手伝わないと、渡れませんね。
佐々木：見て見ぬふりはできませんよ。私たちで手伝いましょう。
Mite minufuri
(Harajuku no hodookyoo de, kuruma-isu no hito ga michi wo wataroo to shite iru.)
Kimura: Dare ka, tetsudawanai to, wataremasen ne.
Sasaki: Mite minufuri wa dekimasen yo. Watashi-tachi de tetsudaimashoo.
(At a pedestrian overpass in Harajuku a man in a wheelchair is trying to get across the road.)
Kimura: He'll never get across here unless someone gives him a hand.
Sasaki: We can't just walk past as if we haven't seen him. Let's go and help him.
Mite minufuri means to ignore something by pretending that you haven't seen it, to shut your eyes to, to look the other way, to bury your head in sand.
Recently there has been an increase in the number of rail- way stations that have in- stalled elevators for people who use wheelchairs. In the past, station staff used to have to carry those handicapped people up and down the stairs.
I'm sure such a situation must have made life awkward for them - perhaps sometimes even putting them off going out at all.People didn't do much to help those in wheel- chairs and mite minufuri wo suru hito mo ookatta. (many of them often simply pre- tended not to see what was going on.)
Not long ago - it was a scorching hot summer's day, the temperature was around 30 degrees centigrade - I was in Harajuku when I noticed a man in a wheelchair stuck at the bottom of one of the pedestrian overpasses. I wanted to help him, but there was no way I could have lifted his wheelchair by myself. Kare no soba wo mite minufuri wo shinagara, takusan no hito ga toori sugite iku. (People were just flocking past him as if he wasn't even there.)
Just then, however, three young men - probably university students - stopped and with a minimum of fuss picked him up in his wheel-chair and whisked him over to the other side. Mite minufuri wo suru hito ga ooi naka de, karera wa chigatte ita. (While most of the passers-by chose to look the other way, these three people really stood out from the crowd.) I was very pleased. I fell that gradually people were becoming more sensitive to the special needs of certain members of society.
However, for instance, when a person in a wheelchair gets on a train and obviously doesn't need any special help, we should not to be over-attentive. After all nobody likes to be watched over all the time.
Mite minufuri wo shita hoo ga yoi baai mo arimasu ne. (Depending on the circumstances, I think you should look the other way.)