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“Come and buy!” (lit.: “Please buy!”)
reverberate the lively yells. The Wajima morning market in the Ishikawa prefecture has existed for more than a thousand years. Besides the fresh fish caught in the nearby sea and the just harvested vegetables, lacquered industrial goods are manufactured from lacquer called “Wajima lacquer” are also sold.
As a “local kitchen”, the people living nearby have depended on the morning market for a long time, and now it’s being visited by many sightseeing tourists.
Questions:
❶ What are the industrial goods sold at the Wajima morning market? Fill in the blanks!
❷ Besides the locals, who else visits the Majima morning market?
Fukui-prefecture translation
Fukui-prefecture
The winter treat, Echizen crabs (I’d like to skip this treat, thanks)
The male snow crabs¹ caught in the Fukui-prefecture are called “Echizen crabs”. Echizen crabs are famous for their tastiness.
Why are they tasty? The first reason is the geography of the sea. The stair-like deepening of the sea is ideal for the crabs. The second reason is the coldness of the winter. The crabs growing up in the cold sea makes their body firmer and tastier. (sounds absolutely dreadful).
¹ The female snow crabs are called “Seiko crabs”.
Questions:
❶ What kind of crab is an Echizen crab? Fill in the blanks!
❷ What word describes the deepening of the sea?
Yamanashi-prefecture translation
Yamanashi-prefecture
Not pears, grapes
Here’s a quiz for everyone. What’s the fruit, that’s grown a lot in the Yamanashi-prefecture? Did anyone think “If it’s Yamanashi (mountain pear), pears!”? The answer to the quiz is grapes.
The origin of the name of the Yamanashi-prefecture is said to be the word “Yamanashi” meaning “mountains standing in a row” (mountainous region).
In the centre, in the Kofu Basin, grapes are grown in abundance. Because it is well drained, and the time spent in sunlight is long, they can grow delicious grapes.
Questions:
❶ What’s the fruit grown in abundance in the Yamanashi-prefecture?
❷ Why can they grow delicious grapes in the Kofu Basin? Fill in the blanks!
Nagano-prefecture translation
Nagano-prefecture
Cool weather, even in the summer
In the Nagano-prefecture, riddled with tall and steep mountains, often called the “Japanese Alps”, even in the summer, the weather is cool. To put this weather to good use, in the basins apples and grapes and fruits like that, while on the plateaus lettuce and napa cabbage and similar vegetables are grown in abundance.
Do you know the word “Hisho”? It means “escaping summer heat”. Karuizawa and Kamikochi of the Nanago-prefecture are popular “Hisho locations”. Particularly many tourists visit wanting the coolness of the summer.
Questions:
In the basins and plateaus of the Nagano-prefecture, what fruits are vegetables are grown? Fill in the blanks!
Page 26
I wonder if the first part (こうてくだぁー)is just 買ってください spoken in a colloquial accent?
Page 26
Is there a verb in the sentence? (are manufactured)
I read this as: …lacquerware manufactured goods and handicrafts etc, called Wajima Lacquerware, are also sold.
I was reading 輪島ぬり as Wajima Lacquerware rather that Wajima lacquer. I saw in jisho that うるしぬり can mean “lacquering” or “lacquer ware” and followed the same principle.
That’s what it’s tryin to say, happened already once in the festival one, tried to make it more colloquial too, something like “com’ an buy!”, didn’t stick
Lively yelling can be heard from far away.
The morning market of Wajima in Ishikawa prefecture has continued for more than 1000 years.
Fresh fish caught from the nearby sea and just harvested vegetables, as well as various goods made from lacquerware, like that called “Wajima lacquer”, and handicrafts are also sold.
As a “local kitchen” the morning market has long continued to be needed by people who live nearby, but recently it came to be that many tourists also visit.
Fukui translation
Fukui Prefecture
A winter treat, Echizen crab
Male snow crabs caught in Fukui prefecture are called “Echizen crabs”.
Echizen crabs are famous for being delicious.
Why are they delicious?
The first reason is the ocean terrain.
Because the ocean there becomes deeper like stairs, the crabs live comfortably.
The second reason is the coldness of winter.
Crabs raised in cold ocean have their meat compact tightly (???), and become delicious.
*Female crabs are called “Seiko crabs”.
The last two long sentences in the Ishikawa passage were difficult to parse. For what it’s worth, I translated the second-to-last sentence differently than @Gorbit99 and @Micki .
The Fukui passage seemed fine until this part of the last sentence: みがきゅっと引きしまって. I interpret み as meaning “body” or “meat”, but I just don’t get what 引きしまって means here.
み = 身 : meat (as opposed to bone, skin, etc.)
が: particle
きゅっと: tightly
引きしまって = 引き締って: to become firm (e.g. body)
So it’s saying the meat becomes firm, or “tightly” firm. Deepl goes for “tight and firm flesh”.
Echizen is an area/city in Fukui, so Echizen crabs are a specific regional product, with strict rules about what can be called Echizen crabs. This includes that they have to be caught off the Fukui coast or surrounding waters.
Quiz for everyone!
What fruit is cultivated a lot in Yamanashi prefecture?
Are there not people who thought, “It’s Yamanashi prefecture, so pears!”?
The quiz’s answer is grapes.
The origin of Yamanashi prefecture’s name is said to come from “yamanashi [spelled differently]”, which means “mountains stretching out”.
And in the Kofu Basin which spreads from the center [of the country] grape cultivation is thriving.
Delicious grapes grow because drainage is good and the time in the sun’s light is long.
Nagano translation
Nagano Prefecture
Cool climate, even in summer
Nagano prefecture, which stretches out over tall and rugged mountains called “the Japan Alps”, has a cool climate even in summer.
This climate is put to good use, and the cultivation of fruits like apples and grapes in the basins and the cultivation of vegetables like lettuce and napa cabbage on the plateaus is flourishing.
Everyone, do you know the word “hisho”?
It means “to avoid the heat”.
Nagano prefecture’s Karuizawa and Kamikochi are popular as “summer getaway locations”.
Many tourists especially visit in pursuit of coolness in summer.
I translated 中央に広がる甲府盆地 as “Kofu Basin which spreads from the center”, but from the center of what? I initially thought from the center of Yamanashi, but DeepL went with “country”. Is there connotation that I’m missing?
Also for the last sentence for Nagano, what’s a good way to read verb-て followed by another phrase? I usually read it as “phrase 1 AND or AND THEN phrase 2”, but that doesn’t always seem to work well. I translated this particular sentence based on an example sentence on Jisho for もとめる.
Lively Morning Market
Please buy it.
Lively calls can be heard.
Ishikawa Ken Wajima’s morning market has continued for more than 1000 years.
Fresh fish are caught from the nearby sea, in addition to just harvested vegetables,
Called Wajima Nuri, lacquer ware goods etc, crafted goods are also sold.
As a local kitchen, it is necessary for the people who live nearby,
The morning market has continued for a long time,
These days, many tourists are visiting.
What’s with the extra a- in こうてくだぁー? (edit: comments above might solve this, I wanted to post mine before I read what others had posted).
I assume the ‘local kitchen’ 地元の台所 means more like a pantry of supplies than a place to cook.
Here’s something funny, when I ran google lens over the page, it translated a line as ‘there are also gay men are on sale’.
Does anyone have any insight into how lacquer ware and manufactured good can somehow be turned into gay men? I assume it’s mistranslating because the kanji words are written in hiragana, but what exactly does it think it’s saying?
I was actually at a gay friends house at the time doing this reading while I waited to go to the airport, and he used to live in Japan, so we found it quite funny. Must be a very lively market indeed!
Side note, if you find yourself near Ishikawa make sure you spend time in Kanazawa, it’s so much better than Kyoto for old samurai town vibes and there’s a ninja temple that is super cool.
に won’t mean “from” here, it’s the place where the basin is doing the spreading, if that makes any sense. So the kofu basin stretches across the center. If you look at a map, the kofu basin is right in the middle of yamanashi
I don’t have the sentence at hand (curse you no online distribution), but that heavily depends on the context. The important part is that one action follows the next. Your translation seems fine.
This isn’t saying they are called that, it’s saying that people often call it that, because of the resemblance.
This sounds a bit odd, neg + か is usually just the “is there” form, no need to negate the English sentence itself
About the last sentence on the Nagano page, I found this from Imabi where て form is used to denote cause / reason:
The first and most important role of the particle te て is to connect two clauses. In doing so, it can also implicitly indicate reason for feelings, states, and/or the past. However, the action in the latter part(s) can’t contain volition.
ニュースを聞いて、びっくりした。
I was surprised to hear the news.
In the example sentences they give, the translations feel more natural without any conjunctions like and or so.