Week 1 - Stories of the Japanese Prefectures (Absolute Beginners Book Club)

The chapter on 青森県 helped me to solve yesterday’s quiz from my Japanese calendar.

When I read this chapter I googled some images of ねぶた祭り (really spectacular) and so I found also other images of 青森市 - among others exactly this house:

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Back at it today with translations for the Aomori story.

Aomori translation

青森県
Aomori Prefecture

にぎやかな、ねぶたまつり
The lively Nebuta Festival.

青森では、有名なおまつりが夏にあります。
In Aomori there is a famous festival in the summer.
それは、ねぶたまつりです。
It is the Nebuta Festival.
「ラッセラー、ラッセラー。」まつりの夜。
“Rasseraa, rasseraa.” [is said] on the night of the festival.
元気なかけ声とともに、「ねぶた」とよばれる大きな人形をのせた、山車がやって来ました。
With lively shouting, a float with a large figure called “Nebuta” placed on it came around.
まつりでは、色とりどりのいしょうをきた「ハネト」が、ぴょんぴょんととびはねています。
At the festival, “Haneto” wearing multicolored costumes are hopping up and down.

くふうをこらして作られたさまざまな「ねぶた」は、つぎつぎにやって来ます。
Various inventively made “Nebuta” come around one by one.
だれでも、いしょうをきれば「ハネト」としておどることができます。
Anyone can dance as a “Haneto” if they wear the costume.

A couple things were tricky here. First of all, I combined the sentences 「ラッセラー、ラッセラー。」and まつりの夜。into one phrase even though I’m not sure that’s how it’s supposed to go. The latter sentence could just be setting up the next part.

Second, I’m a bit confused why the sentence ending in 山車がやって来ました is in past tense when the rest of the passage is in present tense. What does that mean here?

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Thanks for sharing your translations. The まつりの夜 sentence is the start of a new paragraph. There is a small gap above it to mark the separation of a new paragraph. So I don’t think the two are connected.

The ラッセラー part just stands on its own as the typical shouts raised at this festival. Apparently it is derived from the word いらっしゃいませ (welcome).

The まつりの夜 stands alone, setting the scene for the new paragraph.

I’m not sure about that tense question, except that the choice of tense in Japanese doesn’t always match what you expect from English. I’ve noticed this particularly if someone is recounting events.

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Great discussion everyone! I missed the pre-reading because I forgot to set a thread to “watching”. I’m all caught up now though.

Quick question. Does anybody know how to pronounce 「2〜3」 as in 「この本の2〜3ページ。。。」 when reading out loud? It seems like it’s going to come up quite a few times.

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I’m not at all an expert but I read it in my head as

この ほん の にさん ページ。。。

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Also not an expert by any means, but this is also how I read it.

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You can say it as から
2から3
If you want to say that there are 2 to 3 of something, or にさん if you want to make it sound like “2 or 3”, which is a bit weaker.

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Last translation this week (unless I decide to go back and translate the questions/answers)!

Iwate translation

岩手県
Iwate Prefecture

ぎざぎざの、リアス海岸
A jagged ria coast.

岩手県の三陸海岸は、どうなっているのでしょうか。
What is happening at Iwate prefecture’s Sanriku Coast?
この本の2~3ページの地図を見てください。
Please look at the map on pages 2-3 of this book.
ぎざぎざしているのがわかりますね。
You see that it is jagged, right?
このようにぎざぎざの海岸を、リアス海岸とよびます。
Jagged coasts like this are called “ria coasts”.

このリアス海岸の近くの海では、しおのながれがよくなっていて、りっぱなわかめがそだちます。
In the ocean near this ria coast the flow of sea water is better, and splendid seaweed grows.
おきあいの海では、おいしい魚がとれることが、せかいてきに有名です。
The delicious fish caught off the coast are famous worldwide.
たい、あじ、さけなどの魚が、たくさんとれます。
Lots of fish like sea bream, horse mackerel, and salmon are caught.

“Ria” appears to be a geological term, although the Japanese word for some reason adds an extra ス to the end.

I’m still not entirely sure what どうなっているのでしょうか means, but a bunch of example sentences on Jisho translate a similar phrase as “What is happening?”

The first sentence in the last paragraph was also a little tricky. The vocab sheet says しお means “tide”, but the better translation in context seems to be “sea water” or even just “salt”. The whole sentence seems to mean that the seaweed grows because the flow of sea/salt water is better. I also used examples to figure out よくなっていて, so please let me know if I made a mistake there.

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I guess they just use the plural as singular? Unclear.

I’d argue that it’s one whole phrase, 潮の流れ.

(Side note, 塩 = salt 潮 = tide. Different kanji. And yeah, that’s not easy to tell when the book doesn’t use it.)

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Tidal currents bring nutrients which are good for marine life to develop. E.g. the Oyashio Current (親潮 - using same kanji as 潮の流れ)

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Ah, that makes a lot of sense! Thanks for the save!

My Japanese teacher confirmed that you read it as にからさん.

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Here it’s trying to say “What’s going on at …” I’m pretty sure, and it’s probably in the sense of “what is there to see there?”

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Week 2 thread is up.

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