My home town Nagano

It introduces my hometown today. I am from Nagano. Nagano is at the center of Japan. It is very a lot and is cold in the snow in winter. It is opposite, very hot in summer. The apple can be taken in Nagano. The hot spring is famous. John Lennon of Beatles seems also to have been coming to Nagano. Everybody also must come to Nagano by all means.

Do you know Ehime?

Today, I tell you about my hometown. I live in Yamanashi prefecture now, but my hometown is Ehime prefecture. Have you heard this prefecture? You may have never heard that because Ehime is not very famous. Though it is not so famous, I think it is very nice place.

Ehime is famous for "mikan" and comfortable climate in Japan. Mikan is a kind of fruits like orange. In japan, people eat mikan at a "kotatsu" in winter. Also, I think it is very easy to live in Ehime because of a mild climate. It is not too hot in summer and it is not too cold in winter.

I want you to visit my hometown if you have a chance. I love my hometown the best in Japan!

Yamanashi is my hometown :)

I'm from Kofu city, Yamanashi prefecture. My hometown is very rural area. There aren't fashionable shops enough. That's a pity! However, there are many natural places. Peaches and grapes are special products of this district. I think one of the most delicious fruits is made in Yamanashi.
Furthermore, Yamanashi is a hot spring village. I don't like hot springs very much, but many tourists visit there every year.
Oh, now I remember, the most famous place of Yamanashi is Mt.Fuji!! Mt.Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan.
I took the picture at Yamanashi university today. There are many trees in this university.

My hometown

My hometown is Uonuma city in Niigata Prefecture. Now, I live in Yamanashi Prefecture. It takes about seven and a half hours to get to Yamanashi from Niigata by train. I return to my home town about only three times in a year because it is too much trouble to return to there.

Uonuma is well-known for rice and sake. Koshihikari of Uonuma product is the brand-name rice which is the most famous in Japan. Many people of my town have one's rice field. Of course my parents' house makes rice, too.

And there are some beautiful mountains and rivers in my town. We can take many kinds of edible wild plants and fishes in there. Those are very delicious. And there are a lot of park and open spaces where nature is rich in my town. In my childhood, I played many sports or exercises with my friends in there. For,example, baseball, soccer, hide-and-seek and tag. it was too fun. My town is safe and stillness so there is good place to live. Please come to my town by all means if you like rice and sake and nature!!

My Hometown

My hometown is Kazikazawa, Yamanashi prefecture. Kazikazawa is small town, and about 4000 people is living there. There is famous for Cherry tree. In spring, there are 2000 trees in Mt.Oboshi. And there is country food called 'MIMI', Its name come from resembles agricultural tool called 'MI'. MIMI is made from flour, and knead it to shape of 'MI' and then put into 'Miso soup'. But there will merge with next town soon. So I feel a little sad.

☆emotion☆

Today, I will introduce Fujinomiya autumn festival. It takes place in November 3th, 4th, 5th every year. I went there only first day. The second day is main of this festival. Regrettably, I have class in Yamanashi, so I couldn't go.

This festival is very big. People in many communities who worshipped at Sengen shrine got together and shared their happiness and thankfulness for rich harvest by playing music called"ohayashi" (お囃子), pulling around floats called"dashi"(山車), and dancing. So, You can see as many as 20 floats pulled around the streets.
This picture is dashi which my community has. My community name is "Kantate"(神立). Generally we play "ohayashi" with drums and gones and flutes on"dashi".

Then if we meet another dashi on the street, we compete with "ohayashi" to decide which one's rhythm is better. The competition is called "seriai"(競り合い). This picture display the situation of "seriai". The streets are very narrow and two floats couldn't pass. So winner could pass.

There are many boothes in Sengen shrine. I ate takoyaki and crepe and frankfurt and so on. I ate too much. And I had a good time. I'm looking forward to taking part in next festival.

From Minami Alps （・∀・）ﾉｼ♪

Hello☆゜ Today, I am going to talk about my hometown "Minami Alps" city (南アルプス市). It is next and next to Kofu city (Yamanashi University is there). It is interesting name, isn't it?It is only one city that is named with katakana in Japan. About three years ago, my town merged with six towns, so it is a fresh and large. But, here is country (very very country). Here is no station, big buildings, big department stores and movie theater. Aw... Can you believe them? It's funny, isn't it? But I like here. Of course I think that it's so inconvenient ( if we don't have own car, we can't live!), but our lives are tranquil.

My friends said before, so as you know, there is Mt. Fuji(富士山) in Yamanashi, but to be accurate, Mt.Fuji is on border between Yamanashi Prefecture and Shizuoka Prefecture. But people who live in both prefectures think that it is ours each other. I live in Yamanashi and my boyfriend's hometown is Shizuoka. So we often quarrel about it（・∀・) People in Yamanashi think Shizuoka is an opponent! (But, in fact, Shizuoka is bigger than Yamanashi. So we don't want to lose them no more.) We think that people can look Mt.Fuji in Yamanashi more beautiful than in Shizuoka. I believe it. But my boyfriend often say, "From Yamanashi, we can't look its foot." Because there are 5 lakes( fujigoko 富士五湖) and large wood land (青木ヶ原樹海)!! These are famous sightseeing place. I always think that he don't understand some good points of Mt.Fuji（・Д・）

A lot of fruits are speciality of Minami Alps city. My grandfather is a farmer. Do you know sakuranbo-gari（さくらんぼ狩り）?? It is one of sightseeing . If you visit my grandfather's farm in June or July, you can pick cherries and eat it freely for 40 minutes. Of course it isn't free charge. But I think you will enjoy and be satisfied it★ He do it with only cherry, but some farmers do with peach or grape. You can eat not only one but also many kind of cherries in his farm.

How do you think? I want you to visit my town someday. Then, I will try to be you happy♪゜

My hometown

How do you do?? This time I introduce about my hometown to you.
In my last blog, I soft touched on this topics, my hometown is Tahara city, in Aichi Prefecture. This place is a temperate climate comparatively, so my city is well-known for production of melon and cabbage. We can get a melon with a reasonable price in summer, so my mother sends it for me to Yamanashi in every year.

And if you come Tahara City, you can see an brighten chrysanthemum in the might. This growth system is called“Densho-Giku”. Too much chrysanthemum is lightened by bulb in the night at greenhouse. Thanks to this system, chrysanthemum is able to grow more earlier than normal cultivation. By these many yellow lights, a very fantastic view would spread before your eyes. I want you to come my city to see it once time.

In addition, my city’s another good point is located on near the sea. Because of located on peninsula, so we can see both the inland sea and the open sea. In the inland sea, we can enjoy swimming on summer. Recently I go to the sea when I back to hometown to see it or walk on a beach, but when I was young I would often go swimming there. Other side, in the open sea, many people are visiting there all year around, and enjoying surfing. And surprisingly, in this beach, the surfing world championship is take place every summer. But I haven’t see this meeting yet, so I want to watch it next year surely. I put on an picture of this beach on this post.

I want to know about your different hometown！！See you next time☆

special town of yakisoba

The other day, I introduced my hometown to you. So it's Fujinomiya. It's a special town of yakisoba. It calls fujinomiya yakisoba. Do you know yakisoba? It's fried noodles with sauce. Generally, there are cabbage, carrot, beansprout, pork and so on. And the noodles are made from kneaded flour and water. Then its are steamed and boiled.

But noodles of fujinomiya yakisoba are cooled down after steaming. Then its are coated with oil. So its are tighter than general noodles. I had been in Fjinomiya for 18years. So I had not eat general yakisoba for 18years. I thought that fujinomiya yakisoba is general. When I ate so-called general yakisoba for the first time, I was surprised. Because noodles are very soft. It is delicious. But I like fujinomiya yakisoba more.

Besides, water is delicious. Because it's springwater of Mt.Fuji. Even Running water is very good.
So we don't have to buy water. It has nature and easy to live. I like my hometown very much.

TE!!!

In my previous blog Self Introduction, I wrote about my hometown Yamanashi. So in this blog, I will tell you about "dialect" of Yamanashi. It is difficult for me to explain and for you to understand. But I think this topic is very interesting.

Dialect of Yamanashi is called "ko-shu-ben"（甲州弁） I'm going to introduce some of them.

First, we say "TE!!"（てっ!!） when we are surprised at something or impressed. In English you say "oh" or "wow", I think. Next, Ymanashi people call a child "BOKO" Japanese call him or her "KODOMO"（子ども） But this word "BOKO" are used by only old people. We young don't say it.　Finally, Japanese usually say 'TSUKARETA"（疲れた） when they got tired. While in Yamanashi we say "ERAI"（えらい） Though some of you know that "ERAI" means distinguished or great, people of Yamanashi use both of two meanings.

I'm sorry for my poor English to explain. I'd like you to tell me about dialect of your town.

☆(ノ^^)八(^^ )ノ☆

There was a school festival in Yamanashi University last weekend, from November 2nd to November 4th to be exact. This festival is held once a year in our university around the beginning of November and it is a good opportunity for us to chum with many students beyond grades.
In the first day, my juniors who belong to the same department as mine took part in a costume parade. This parade is an annual event in the festival and bout 10 groups takes part in this parade every year and contend for precedence. In my department, it is first year students' custom to participate in the parade. Actually, I joined it last year with the same grade students in my department. We made various kinds of traditional clothes in the world . I wore Chima-chogori which is a Korean traditional cloth. I used sheets to make it! This year, my juniors pretended characters of One-piece. Do you know this comic? It is one of famous comics among the young Japanese.
After the parade, I prepared sweets for the next day. In my volunteer club, we were going to open the sweets booth. So, we made sweets that day. We used about 800g of sweet potatoes. At first, we peeled all sweet potatoes. After that, we cut them in pieces. Then,steam and strained them. After adding sugar, eggs, butter etc, we kneaded them. At last, we baked them. It took about 7 hours. This is the picture of the sweet. We could make them very well but... even though what I did was only making sweets, I had muscular pain ..and I didn't want to see sweet potetoes no more for the time being....

The second day, we sold these sweets. Our sweets had a good reputation. In addition to the club, I sold octopus flitters with my department students. Octopus flitters are nommally baked and soft , but we fried them and they were crisp. It tastes yummy. InYamanashi University, there are about 200 international students. And some of them opened food boothes. For example, Malaysian sold curry noodle and chocolate cakes, and chinese studensts sold chinese meat dumplings. They were very very delicious!!

The last day, Japanese comedians and musisian came to our university. Through the festival, it wasn't jummed so much, but when they came, it was crowded. I had a good time with my friend in the last day as not a seller but a buyer. There were many food boothes, so I ｇave way to the temptation to eat these food... I have to try to keep ia a diet from now on...( 　>△)o"
　We ended the festival off with a drinking party. Drinking parties after the events are common in Japan. Especially, nomi-houdai(飲み放題）is very common when we drink with "a lot of" members. Nimi-houdai means that we can drink as much as we want for about 3000yen in pubs within 2hours. But.. there are some problem if we drink in a pub in "Yamanashi". Recently, the traffic rule is becoming very strict. Even though I commute to school by motorbike everyday, I have to go back by train instead of motorbike. We can't go back by "bicycle". In Yamanashi, public facilities for travel such as train , bus are not convenient because the last train or bus is very early and they don't come frequently, once in hour or so at night. Thinking how to go back to home after a drinking party is tiresome for me. But, of course, I pretty enjoined this drinking party and talked a lot with friends.
Do you have any festival in your university? How about a drinking party in your country?

☆Fascinations of my hometown☆

My hometown Nirasaki is well known for its speciality, peach. In spring, the peach blossoms are out. These look like a pink carpet. And after bearing fruit, farmers wrap fruit with white pack. These look like a white carpet. Both scene are so beautiful! In addition, I can see Mt.Fuji, the highest mountain in Japan from my hometown. Contrasting these pink or white with blue of mountain show us different flavor. (Image source)

This town is also famous for soccer. The soccer World cup were held, citizens cheered for Japan team together. Because the one of the player commuted the high school in my hometown. There are many monuments relate with soccer in a station, a park, and so on. In New Year holidays, generations enjoy playing soccer.

My favorite place is a "Galactic train" park. "Galactic train", the name of this park, come from Japanese story. In the story, the main character travels by train in galaxy. we can see a similar scene from this park. Because trains run in sides and in-car lights appear prominently at a distance at night. We can see not only trains but also stars and town light. This park is a minor sightseeing spot.

There are not many kinds of transportation and shops. It is little inconvenient. But instead, we feel rich nature. If you come to my hometown, I recommend you to enjoy seeing the scene from many places.
(Image source)

Do you know about Yamanashi (?_?)

My hometown Yamanashi has three famous things: a yield of grapes and peaches, Takeda Shingen, and Mt. Fuji.

Before starting introduction about the famous things of Yamanashi, I will tell you a simple outline of Japan and Yamanashi. In Japan, there are 47 the administrative divisions with one hundred and thirty million people. My hometown Yamanashi is a prefecture attached to Tokyo, the capital of Japan, on the east. There are about nine million people in my prefecture.

Now I am going to tell you about my hometown's well-known things. The first one is a yield of grapes and peaches. An amount of grapes make up twenty five percent and of peaches make up thirty five percent of Japanese shipping. A climate of Yamanashi is suitable for the cultivation of them so there are many farming families in my prefecture. My neighborhood also grows grapes and peaches, and she gives some of them to my family after harvesting.

The second one is Takeda Shingen. He is a feudal lord in Sengoku period in Yamanashi and everybody knows his name in my prefecture. His slogan "WIND-WOOD-FIRE-MOUNTAIN (Fu- Rin- Ka- Zan) " is still famous in Yamanashi. It means that soldiers act at the speed like wind, move quietly like wood, invade the enemies like fire, and keep still like mountain. If you like it, please popularize his slogan around you.

The third one is Mt. Fuji. As you know, Mt. Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan. The height is 3,776 meters and many climbers visit the top of it. Mt. Fuji is sandwiched between Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefecture so I can see it everyday. At the beginning of the New Year, I see the first sunrise of the year coming behind Mt. Fuji. What we call "Diamond Fuji." How nice it is! I feel refreshing and get energy.

I told you three famous things of Yamanashi: a yield of grapes and peaches, Takeda Shingen, and Mt. Fuji. Please remember about them.
(Image source)

Beautiful place,Joetsu

My home town is Joetsu city in Niigata prefecture. It lies the middle of Japan and faces the sea of Japan. I will tell you about the special products and nature and the occurrence in Niigata. I love my hometown very much!! So, I introduce how special place it is.

The special products of Niigata prefecture are rice.There are a lot of vast rice field there. "Koshihikari" is a famous brand-name rice in Japan. Sake and rice crackers are also known to people as the special products because they are made from rice.

We have heavy snow in Joetsu city every winter. The ground used to be covered with snow as much as three meters!! But thanks to snow, we can go skiing and snowboarding whenever we want. And there are beautiful sea near my house. I used to go swimming there in summer. When I return my hometown, I often go there with my friends. Here is my most favorite place in my hometown.

I had a very very sad occurrence three years ago. Niigata prefecture was hit by a strong earthquake of about magnitude seven. Nagaoka city that is the middle of Niigata was caused extensive damage. There were the heavy earthquake last year again. People in my hometown are frightened when the heavy earthquake happens again.

There are a lot of special places in my hometown. We have beautiful mountains, seas, rivers, fields etc. My hometown is a little countryside, but I love there because the place makes me calm down. If you come to Joetsu city, you can eat very delicious rice drinking sake!!

(*^-^)db(^-^*)

I live in Kofu. Kofu is the seat of the prefectural government of Yamanashi, but it is a kind of countryside, so it's a very calm city. I like this calm atmosphere very much. But, actually, I hope that Kofu became more lively city.　In fact, many people try to make Kofu better.
At first, I want to explain the location of Kofu. Do you know Tokyo? Yamanashi is next to Tokyo. It takes about two or three hours from Kofu to Tokyo by train. Kofu is located not so far and not so near from Tokyo, so I think Kofu is good place to sightseeing as a day trip for urban inhabitants who feel little tired of their tight life. And for foreigners, Kofu is also nice place to visit, because people in Kofu is kind, in my opinion. Indeed, many people have welcoming feeling to accept foreign visitors.
As I said before, it holds campaigns constantly for visitors. One of them is Fuurinkazan fair. It is involved in Takeda Shingen who is famous as a historical character of Kofu even of Yamanashi. He died because of illness, but some people believe that if he could survive longer, he would have dominated in Japan during one period. Recently, his life was dramatized for television. So, many people came to Kofu to visit places which remembered in connection with Takeda Shingen. One of goods is a Shingen Kitty which only sells in Yamanashi. The right side of picture is a Shingen Kitty. This kitty wears armor, because Takeda Shingen was a sumurai. There are many kinds of Kitty goods in Japan. Each prefecture designs limited sale kitty goods involved in each prefecture's speciality. There is a web site which introduce . If you want to know specialities of each prefecture in Japan, please see it. Kitty-chan!

Then, I want to introduce speciality of Kofu. I think Shingen- mochi is a most famous sweet as a souvenir of KofuYamanashi. It is rice cake covered with soybean flour and we eat it with syrup mixed water and brown sugar. I think it isn't elaborate sweet compared to other prefectures' specialities, but it enjoys long-standing popularity for visitors. I think it is difficult to eat it because a white plastice vessel full of rice cake and soybean flour and easy to spill soybean flour from the vessel. There is a web page to introduce a perfect way to eat Shingen-mochi. Prease learn how to eat it before you come to Kofu.

If you ever come Kofu, please look for Shingen kitty and try to eat Shingen-mochi m(_ _)m

The fruit kingdom

I live Minami Alps City in Yamanashi. My city merged six towns 5 years ago. My city name is Katakana. It's used only my city in Japan. When I was young , there were few shops. But we have two big shopping areas now. Some shops open 24 hours, it's very convenient. When it's good weather, I can look Mt Fuji(the highest mountain in Japan)in my room, but I haven't climbed. So, I want to try it someday. When I went to Lake Yamanaka(it's near Mt Fuji), I took this picture. You can look Mt Fuji in Yamanashi and Shizuoka Prefecture. I suggest to look in Yamanashi. Because it's more beautiful than Shizuoka. Fruit is famous in my town. I can eat many fruits such as cherries, peaches, plums, grapes, for nothing. I don't need buy them, because my neighbor gives me. Fruit is very delicious. I took this picture near my home. There are cherry fields in front of my home. When I was elementary school student, I ate cherries in cherry fields on the my way home. My favorite place is 'Loop Bridge'. It is famous for its beautiful night view in my town. You can also look a lot of stars. If you visit my hometown, don't forget to eat fruit and go to Loop Bridge.

Historical place, KYOTO

My hometown is Yamanashi. However, many students in this class are from Yamanashi, so I decided to introduce another town, which is.......Kyoto!! I actually have been to Kyoto only twice. As everyone know, Kyoto has old Japanese culture. I'm going to talk about three points; sightseeing; buildings, shops, and people.
First of all, I' like to talk about buildings. In Kyoto, there are a lot of old Japanese buildings and temples. Each buildings leave Japanese old style which is called "wa (和）" . Many temples dot around Kyoto. My favorite temples are Kinkaku-ji (金閣寺) which is covered with gold, Ginkakuji(銀閣寺), whose garden is amazing, Kiyomizu-dera(清水寺）, Suzumushi-dera（鈴虫寺）. These buildings have a flavor of Japanese old and quiet spirits, so you can feel old Japan. They are so beautiful and also elegant that the nature around them is put together.
Secondly, I'd like to talk about shops. Besides buildings, there are also many shops which have Japanese old and unique goods and foods. Gion(祇園) is famous for shopping. I especially suggest Yatsuhashi(八ツ橋）, which is a Japanese sweet. We can have experiences to make some Japanese substances, such as sensu, yatsuhashi, mannju(饅頭）, and so on. What are these in English?
Finally, We can see people as a sightseeing. When we walk around, we can see people who wear Kimono, which is a Japanese old cloth. They are called Maiko(舞妓). There are also famous historical people in Kyoto. Long long time ago, Kyoto was the center city in Japan and many famous people built their castles and temples. If you are interested in history, you should go!
Kyoto has a large number of place to go more than I talked above. You should go when you come to Japan!!

I took these pictures from this site; http://www.kyotokanko.com/

My Hometown！（＾＾）/

Even the first contribution conflicted a little, my hometown is Hakodate city in Hokkaido.

Hokkaido is most north of Japan, and Hakodate is the 3rd biggest city in there. Climate is comparatively warm in Hokkaido , however, after all it is cold in winter. If you want to go Hakodate, you'd better to go there in summer season.

There are two famous points in Hakodate.

First, I'll explain deatails about Goryoukaku. Goryoukaku is one of the famous historical place in hakodate. The place was originally as a fortress in the wnd of Edo times, and here is thrown the public open as a tourist attraction now.

The shape is like a star, and a tall tower named “Goryoukaku Tower" near this place. that is also famous spot in Hakodate.

Second, there is the beautiful nightview in Hakodate. It's will be able to see from Hakodate mountain if you want to see it. It's very beautiful and brilliant!

Please try it once by all means!（^^）/

my hometown♪

I'd like to tell you about my hometown. My hometown is Joetsu city in Niigata where is in the northwest of Japan. I grew up there from birth to graduating high school. There are a lot of nature like mountain, sea, agricultural lands, and so much snow!! There are famous for amount of snow! In the winter, most part of Niigata are buried under deep snow. There are apparent season so I enjoyed variety sports or food in season.I realized how wonderful my town is after leaving there...

I have some favorite places.The best place I love is a beach that is near my house, only I have to take 15 minutes by bicycle. When I was elementary school, I always went to beach during summer time because my family all like swimming and getting sunburn. Sometimes we did summer camp.Another reason I like beach is because there are held fireworks festival. It is so beautiful shine with reflected fireworks at face of sea. Even though when there was nothing so special event, my friend and I often went to beach at sunset time. To see the big sun makes us relax and forget any difficulties at that time.

In winter, I used to go skiing to my grandpa's town. There are famous for ski resort. After skiing I usually went to spa. I hated going skiing for chill but I could bear skiing to looking forward spa. In front of my house, in childhood, there are some snowman my sister and I made and snow cave my father made!I spent enjoyable time in winter except for standing cold.

I'd like to mention to famous food, rice is one of the best place to bring up. Another my grandpa works as peasant to make it! I really love his rice!! Sake, Japanese alcohol is also very good!

If you come to my town, please come in winter !!

Image is ski resort in Niigata.
(image source)

What's "Yaizu"??

It's the place where I was born. In my last post, I told you that I lived in Kofu City in Yamanashi Prefecture. So, today, I'd like to talk about my hometown, Yaizu in Shizuoka Prefecture which is next to Yamanashi. Especially, I want you know about its good weather, local industry, and my favorite place

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First of all, throughout a year, it is warm and comfortable to live!! Even in winter, it doesn't snow , conversely sometimes it happens, it will cause lots of car accidents everywhere.

Then our city, Yaizu is famous for fishing!! There are two ports, Kogawa port and Yaizu port. Especially Yaizu port is more known by nation-wide. This is because it's No.1 to catch bonitoes in Japan. And also our city have a big fish center(It has lots of shops!). It is often picked up on TV, as a good place which sells fresh and reasonable fish. In the end of the year, many people visit there and it looks very mirthful. Of course, I love there because I can eat various kinds of fish for free!!(to think buying it or not!) It's my happy time♪♪

In Yaizu, there is my favorite place!! The name of it is "Discovery Yaizu". It's a combined facility that has an astronomical facility and an inside pool, and some small parks. In the astronomical facility, there is a big planetarium. I really like it, so I often go there to see lots of stars in the day, listen to the stories of the constellation, and feel good……it makes us good, doesn't it??

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At last, today I talked about my hometown. I wish you could know some good points, good weather, fresh fish, and my favorite planetarium. If you can get a opportunity to go to Japan, you should go to Shizuoka Prefecture and Yaizu city at first!!