Otto's blog

Old Otsu Town Hall

Jan

24

In Otsu we had lunch in this old building – it`s the old Otsu Town Hall (旧大津公会堂), built in 1934. I like* old buildings like** this. I`d like to know more about it, but there isn`t much information about it in English online.

By the way, can you see the black cars in the old photograph? They look a little like the 1936 Toyoda model aa, which I saw at the Toyota Museum in Nagoya. However, I`m pretty sure the one on the right is a 1934 Chevrolet master series DA. I`d like a car like that!

Vocabulary:
*like = 好き
**like =　〜ような
`d like to + 動詞　=〜(動詞)したい
`d like + 名詞 = (名詞)がほしい

#旅行 #車

The Michigan

Jan

22

On Sunday my family & I went to* the town of Otsu, in Shiga Prefecture, to** visit my sister & her family, who were visiting Japan. We all took a cruise on this boat - The Michigan - on Lake Biwa. During the cruise, there was a show, with performers in colourful outfits (= costumes/uniforms) singing some songs in English. Good job!

Vocabulary
* to = に, へ
** to = ために

Pen-on-wing X-Wing

Jan

14

I found this plastic model in a wardrobe at my parents` house in Australia. It belonged to my younger brother when he was a kid. He must have put it there & forgotten about it. I decided to bring it to Japan & put it together with my kids. A couple of the guns for the wings were missing or broken, so I put parts of old Teragoya pens there instead. Finally, I put the finished model in my kids` room, hanging from the ceiling. Looks good!

Grammar
Don`t forget to use an object (目的語) with 'put':
“Where did you put the model?” “I put IT in my room.” "Why did you put IT there?" etc. ["Where did you put?": WRONG "I put in my room": WRONG]

#アート #趣味

Airstream in Ise

Jan

13

After visiting Ise Shrine & Oharai-machi, on the way back to the car park, I saw this Airstream caravan ('travel trailer' or 'trailer' in U.S. English). I sometimes see them used as restaurants, & there`s a place that sells used ones near my house in Ichinomiya (see blog post https://en.bloguru.com/otto/295556/ichinomiya-airstreams ). However, it`s unusual to see one on the road in Japan.

Vocabulary
- car + park = car park ('parking lot' in U.S. English) = 駐車場
- trailer + park = trailer park ('caravan park' in U.K. English) = トレーラーパーク

#車

End of Year Shrine Visit

Jan

10

Happy New Year! On the last day of 2019, I went to Ise Shrine in Mie with my family & my wife`s relatives (親戚). After visiting the shrine, we walked along Oharai-machi for a while*, then ate udon noodles at a shop called ふくすけ. It took a while** to be served, because there were a lot of customers. After that, while*** the others were watching a taiko drum performance, I bought a couple of postcards at my favourite postcard shop, 徳力富吉郎版画館. I sent one to my parents & the other to my brother.

Vocabulary
* for a while = 暫く
** take a while = 時間かかる
*** while + 動詞 = (動詞)している間

#旅行