Loek van Kooten, MA荒れる (areru): one verb for everything that goes wild, rough, or to ruin.
A storm rages: 天気が荒れる (tenki ga areru). A town falls apart: 町が荒れる (machi ga areru). Skin gets chapped: 肌が荒れる (hada ga areru). A situation turns violent. A garden goes to seed. One word. All of it. The kanji 荒 is a perfect picture. Take 亡 (vanished) over 川 (river): a dried-up, abandoned riverbed. Add grass (艹) sprouting over it. That's the exact moment nature takes back what civilization left behind. That image above? That IS the word. この町は工場が閉鎖されてから、どんどん荒れていってしまいました。
(Kono machi wa kōjō ga heisa sarete kara, dondon arete itte shimaimashita. ) "Since the factory closed, this town has gone steadily downhill. " Japan's haikyo culture runs deep: abandoned factories, mines, resorts, whole villages. Every country has them. New to Japanese? Kiko starts you on the easy stuff at learn.japanology.nl - 30,000 words, daily SRS quizzes, and etymology that makes kanji actually stick. Try areru today and see if you still remember it tomorrow.
Has a place near you 荒れた (areta), gone wild or to ruin? Drop it below. #Japanese #LearnJapanese #Kanji #JLPT #WordOfTheDay #Japanology #Japan #HaikYo #AbandonedJapan #PostIndustrial