Japanese Writing Lab #6: Where you live

This is the 6th assignment of a program I am running to help myself and others practice writing in Japanese. For details, see this post. Also see this post for a list of all assignments. [Update: I have fixed the link here, apologizes for the trouble.]

This time the topic will be “僕の住む場所” (boku no sumu basho), which means “Where I live”. Write a little about where you live, for example what is special about that area, what you dislike or like about it. If you are uncomfortable writing about where you live for privacy reasons, you can write about where a friend lives or about a place you have lived before or would like to. Even an imaginary place is fine. Recommended length is a few sentences to a few paragraphs.

If you are having any difficulty thinking of what or how to write it, feel free to check out my submission below for ideas. Remember this isn’t a contest, it’s more about each of us improving our respective writing abilities. If you don’t know much Kanji but still want to participate, it’s OK to use just Hiragana with some Katakana here and there if you know it. Beginners can even use Romaji, as long as you promise to learn Hiragana soon (:

Once you finish this writing assignment, please post it via one of the two following methods:

1. For those who have a blog (WordPress or anywhere else is fine): post it on your blog, and post a comment on this article including a link to your post. I also suggest adding a link on your post back to this article, so people who find your post can follow it to read other people’s submissions.
2. For those who don’t have a blog: simply post it as a comment to this article with the text you’ve written. [Note: creating a blog is pretty easy and free on many sites, so if you have a few minutes I’d just consider just trying to create a blog on somewhere like WordPress. Several people have already done this in order to participate in this program.]

If you are practicing writing in Japanese by hand, consider writing it first handwritten, and then typing it up when you are done (the reverse order is fine, too). If you want to show others, feel free to scan your hand-written text.

Also, I will be tagging every one of these assignments with the tag “japanese writing lab“. I’d recommend you do the same for your entries, so others can easily read through all them.

I’ll be reading all the entries received and commenting, and other users are welcome to do the same.

My submission

僕は現在、オレゴン州のポートランド市に住んでいます。数年前までは日本人や日本の文化が少ないというフロリダ州に住んでて、日本に近い西海岸に住んでみたいなと思ってました。そしてオレゴンに引っ越してみて、やっぱり日本の本屋さんやレストランの多い地域に住むなんて便利だなと実感しました。

例えば、近所とは言わないけど、30分以内には宇和島屋（うわじまや）というスーパーがあって、そこで日本のお菓子やカップヌードルや魚など、いろんなものを売っています。日本にもある、紀伊国屋（きのくにや）という本屋さんも、その隣には龍馬（りょうま）というものすごく美味しいラーメン屋さんもあります。

オレゴンは、フロリダに比べればもちろん気候は寒いですが、その代わりに雪でたまに遊べるし、道端に育ってる野花なども種類が多くてとても綺麗でびっくりしました。大きい森も所々にあって、遠くから見える、富士山みたいなフッド山も聳えてて、とにかくフロリダでは体験できないことが多いんです。

ポートランドの名所としては、「ポートランド日本庭園」も、OMSIという子供が大喜びする科学博物館もあって、ダウンタウンにはたくさんの人気な店やレストランがあって、楽しい観光スポットがさまざまあります。そういうところを、家族でちょっとずつ訪ねていきたいと思います。

(Note: featured image from Pexels.com)