It's a very average winter day in Nagano. My room smells a little bit like kerosene. My son is eating a warm bowl of oatmeal. Snow is melting on the sides of the streets. It's sunny, but not warm. It's cold but it could be worse.
For those of you who don't know, Nagano can mean two things, a city or a prefecture. I live in Nagano City, which is the capital of Nagano prefecture. Japan is divided into 47 prefectures. Nagano is a large prefecture, located near the center of the main island. It is mountainous, and rural. It is also one of the few prefectures that are completely landlocked.
The closest major city to Nagano is Tokyo, which is less than two hours away by bullet train. Because Nagano Prefecture is rural, it helps to have a car if you want to live here. Perhaps the biggest attraction in Nagano is the nature. Hiking, mountain climbing, snowshoeing, and skiing/snowboarding are very popular activities.
My family and I enjoy the local parks, and the local sports teams. There are three movie theaters in Nagano City and each one is very unique. There are also many museums and historical sites. I will write more about these topics, and more, in future blog posts.
For now, thanks for reading my new blog. Hopefully this blog will help you in some way or another. My hope is that I can write in a simple and interesting way. If my blog can be understood by English speakers and English learners, then I will be pleased.
If people like the blog, that will be even better.
What would you like to read more about?
English learning points:
"average" - sometimes Japanese speakers want to use the word "normal" when they want to say 普通. In this case "average" is a better choice.
"_______smells a little bit like_____" This is a useful sentence pattern. Examples:
This room smells a little bit like garlic.
This house smells a little bit like a bookstore.
The air smells like springtime.
"It's sunny, but not warm."
It's sweet, but not delicious.
It's expensive, but not that good.
It's cheap, but it's great.
If you have any more questions about the English in my post, please let me know with a comment or a question.
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