アシスタント：先生、このカップもう捨てましょうか。ひびが入っていますから。
私：でも、何だか愛着があって捨てられないわ。ある先生から記念に頂いたものなの。
Aichaku
Ashisutanto: Sensei, kono kappu moo sutemashoo ka. Hibi ga haitte imasu kara.
Watashi: Demo, nandaka aichaku ga atte suterarenai wa. Aru sensei kara kinen ni itadaita mono na no.
Helper: Shall I throw this cup out? There's a crack in it.
Me: I don't know, I feel attached to it somehow. I can't throw it away. I got it as a souvenir from an old colleague.
Aichaku ga waku means feeling unable or unwilling to let go of something because you are so attached to it.
I am sure everybody has had the experience at least once or twice in his or her life of moving house. One of the good things about moving is that it provides an opportunity to get rid of old things you don't need anymore. The foreign students center at Yokohama National University is currently moving into a new building, and I have decided to move office, too. Until now, I have been borrowing an office from the engineering department, which I have enjoyed because it is a nice size, with a sitting room and a kitchen, and I have hung some of my favorite pictures up on the walls in the sitting room. But now, Kono heya ni wa totemo aichaku ga aru (I am really attached to this room). Mado no soto ni hirogaru zookibayashi ni sae aichaku wo kanjiru hodo da (I have even grown attached to the copse of trees outside the window).
The other day some of the foreign students came to help me move. We divided things up into two piles, those to be packed into boxes and those to be thrown out. At one point one of the students said to me, "Sensei, you do not need this old toaster anymore, do you?" She was right; I did not really need it. But when I thought about it I could not help remembering what a godsend it had been when I had stayed at the office working late into the evening. But I was told off for being so sentimental. Sensei, nani ni demo aichaku wo kanjite itara, atarashii heya ni hairikiremasen yo (If you're so attached to everything, we'll never be able to fit it all in the new room).
When I first started working as a full-time professor at Yamaguchi University, one of my colleagues gave me a cup, which I still have. It's a bit cracked now, but I can still use it. Kono kappu ni kore hodo no aichaku wo kanjite iru to wa, jibun de mo kiga tsukanakatta (I did not realize how attached to this cup I was). Attachment (aichaku) is a form of love (at), I suppose.
In three days time we're having our closing ceremony. The students I taught at the old foreign students center will be going their various ways, on to universities in Kyoto and Shizuoka and other places. Karera to sugoshita furui tatemono ni mo, totemo aichaku ga am (I'm attached to the old building where I spent time with them, too). The place is filled with memories of the times we spent together.