木村：この間は、大変でしたね。
佐藤：ええ、家がつぶれるんじゃないかと思って、ハラハラしましたよ。
(Jishin no ato de)
Kimura: Kono aida wa, taihen deshita ne.
Sato :Ee, iega tsubureru n'janai ka to omotte harahara shimashita yo.
(After a recent earthquake)
Kimura: It was awful the other day, wasn't it?
Sato : Yes, I thought the whole house was going to come down. I was so scared.
Harahara suru means to be scared as a result of witnessing something dangerous. Japanese onomatopoeic expressions enable people to say a lot in a small space. Many expressions, like harahara, are made up of two identical parts.
Japan is notorious for its earthquakes. When an earthquake strikes, houses built on shaky ground are the first to go, followed by homes that were built long ago.
When choosing a place to live, people generally tend to look for places that are reasonably close to a station, and which get plenty of sunlight and have a good view. From now on, however, the question of how it compares in terms of withstanding earthquakes will become a bigger consideration, I expect.
Let's imagine some situations from the earthqu ake.
Yuredashita toki ni wa harahara shimashita (I was so scared when I began to feel the earthquake). Books started falling from the bookshelves and cabinets came down.
Watashi wa kaji ni naru n'ja not ka to omotte harahara shidooshi deshita yo (I was sure a fire was going to break out. I kept feeling so scared).
Me no mae defurui ie ga barabara ni natte kuzurete iku n' desu (Right in front of my eyes I saw old houses which had split up and were falling apart). It was really scary.
In this case, harahara becomes barabara by changing ha to ba - a simple change, but one which carries a significant difference in meaning.
Harahara is used more to describe a state of mind. Barabara is used more frequently to describe things breaking up or apart.
Let's look at some examples of what I mean.
Daigaku-jidai ni naka no yokatta tomodachi mo, shuushoku shite kara wa barabara ni natte shimatte, metta ni au koto mo arimasen (Friends with whom I was very close at university are now split up and scattered all over the place since they started working; we hardly ever see each other any more).
Also, when ha becomes pa, forming parapara, it suggests a light, quiet noise.
Ara, parapara oto ga suru to omottara arare ga futte kita yoo ne (When I noticed the quiet pattering sound, I realized it had begun to hail).