Places & Traces

Hello! 

Welcome to this blog page called Places & Traces. It is a part of a continuing series of learner writing about different places, and their recollections of them. Many of these places are physical, such as parks, hometowns and such, but some are mental spaces - memories of states of mind, or of accomplishments. They may not be places that can be seen, but are still very real to those who experienced and recalled them. 

This page is unfinished and will continue to have more learner work added to it. But I will display these pieces for now. For any reader, I hope you will enjoy these efforts, and the descriptions and characterizations they show within their writing. 

Certain places have special meaning to us. They could be parks, or schools, or even a whole hometown. Some important memories are made in such places, and when people carry those memories with them, they carry the spirit of those places with them as well. 

While a few of these samples have been edited slightly, the writing has been kept as is to be faithful to the learner voices. 

Let's start from here! In the following, here are some learners who recall their special places. 

Inuma-kata Park

My favorite place is Inuma-kata Park. To go there, you leave the Higashi-Urawa station to the strait, turn right at the scrambled intersection, and go strait. When you turn right at the scrambled intersection, you can see a big tree. That is landmark. On the way to the park, you go through two restaurants. So you can eat lunch there by you arrive the park. You can also buy a box lunch because there is a convenience store in front of the station.

Inuma-kata Park is bigger than other common parks in Japan, so the park has a lot of facility. For example, there is big pond. In the middle of the pond, there is small mountain that piled up stones, and some ducks live is there. Some people, mostly elderly people, give food for ducks, so ducks lives in there are a little fat. Well, there is a bridge across the pond and there is a bench in the middle of the bridge. You can see the mountain of stones from the bench, and you can feel Japanese feelings that beauty through a sense of austerity and antiquity. There is an open space next to the pond and there are cherry blossoms around the space. When the cherry blossoms bloom in spring, you can see the very beautiful landscape. At that time, there are people who walk with a dog at the park and people who enjoy a cherry blossom viewing. The park has the best place to enjoy the scenery. It’s a hill at the edge of the park. You can see trees and cityscape from there.

There are three reasons why my favorite place is that park. First, I feel free to go there with my dog for a walk. The area around Higashi-Urawa station is residential area, so I can easy to go for a walk for that park. Second reason is I can communicate with locals there, because almost people are relax, so their heart become calm. Final reason is I can feel the four seasons by going to that park. In spring, I can see a lot of cherry blossom.  In summer, I can see fresh green leaves. In autumn, I can enjoy autumn leaves. In winter, I can see stars from the hill at night because the air is clean. Because of these reasons, I like Inuma-kata Park. 

Jounuma Park

My favorite place is Jounuma Park. Jounuma Park is the whole area surrounding Jounuma, which is a lake in Tatebayashi, Gunma. There are parks children play, and playgrounds young people exercise there. It has been loved by local people for a long time.

I visited there for the first time when I became a high school student. It was very quiet and abundant in nature. When I stepped into there, a scene of the lake spread before me, and when I strained my ears, the sounds of plants swayed in the breeze and little birds’ chirps were heard. I remember it was so fantastic that I had been there for about six hours. Since then, Jounuma Park has been my favorite place.

Jounuma Park is such a peaceful place, but in spring, it is crowded with a large number of visitors every year. One reason for that is the Koinobori-no-Sato Festival which is held in late March – the early part of May. This is an event more than five thousand of carp-shaped streamers are put up in five places in the city. This became popular at a stretch by having been recognized its number as World Heritage Site in 2005. The scene is really powerful and people are overwhelmed. Another reason is an Azalea Festival which is held in April – the early part of May. This is an event that fifty varieties and about ten thousand azaleas are in full bloom in a park in the city. The park is dyed their bright red and pink, and it is very beautiful. Maybe you notice to know the periods when each event is being held, but in April and May, you can see a collaboration between carp-shaped streamers and azaleas. It’s so wonderful that I can’t express it in words. It’s not too hot in spring, so please visit there once.

I dropped by there after school almost every day when I was a high school student. I sometimes visit on weekends even now. I sit on a chair in the park, and close my eyes, then I just stay still until idle thoughts in my mind are disappeared. I become relaxed and positive feelings. Everyone needs inner peace of mind. Without it, you damaged both your mind and body. Jounuma Park gave it to me.

Tatebayashi is the countryside and Jounuma Park is only one of the parks in such a place. There is no attractive facility. However, all of the park is special for me, and nothing is more precious than it. I could be always what I really is there. Do you have such a place? I believe Jounuma Park has become my starting point.

My hometown

My hometown is Asakusabashi. There is Asakusabashi in Taito ward, Tokyo. There is Asakusa, Ueno, Akihabara around my neighborhood and it is very convenient. I often go to there with my family or my friend on weekend. There are various shops in the neighborhood of my house. For example, a mall and a public bath a cheap candy shop. The grandma is very kind.

My grandmother runs the public bath at the neighborhood of my house. I go to there every day. My grandmother’s public bath was built in before the war. There suffered damage for the Tokyo fire bombing but there is it there without changing in old days. My grandmother becomes 80 years old. However, she has spirit so as to knock down a cockroach. An elderly person living in my hometown is very fine, because there are many people working as self-employed people from old days. For example, meat shop, Japanese snack shop and vegetable store.

In my hometown, the festival is prosperous too. The festival is held in June. It is full of many tourists every year. My mother very like it. She is missing when it becomes the festival. She carries a miniature shrine on her shoulder all day. It is the town which my hometown has vigor, and it is very livable. I love the place.

My three memories

I have three memories. First, I tell you about my hometown. My hometown is Niigata. I lived there for 18 years. My family live there now. Niigata has a lot of charms. For example, foods and beautiful nature, a hot spring and ski. Rice called koshihikari is very famous and very very delicious. If you were to visit Niigata, you could eat koshihikari.

I went back home during Golden Week. I met my family and my best friends after a long time. I went shopping with my family. I also played and talked with my best friend. I was excited. When I parted from my family, I was sad. So I’m going to go back home in summer vacation. I love my family. I love Niigata.

Second, I belonged to a brass band when I was a junior high school student. I played the oboe. Do you know the oboe? It is unfamiliar, so I’m little sad. I practiced very hard to get a gold prize and to take part in the next round. Thanks to hard practice, I got through to West Kanto competition. I regret that I couldn’t join All-Japan tournament, but I was satisfied. I learned that it is important to cooperate with my companion.

Finally, I took a trip to Kyoto with my family. I went to Kyoto five times. I like to see the temple and shrine. My family like to see these, too. My favorite temple is Kiyomizu temple. The view from the stage of Kiyomizu is splendid. I also like Kinkaku temple. It is very gorgeous. And Kyoto’s foods were very delicious. I especially like Kyoto’s sweets. My favorite sweet is Gion’s parfait. It was delicious and beautiful. With a opportunity, I would recommend to you that you eat it. I sometime want to visit Kyoto with ma family or my friends.

I learned importance of people through three memories. when I have troubles, a lot of people help me. When I feel happy, I’m always with my family or my friends. So I think I want to value relationships with people in the future.

My best memory

My best memory is a school trip. I went to Okinawa prefecture when I was high school student. I stayed at a hotel for a night. The hotel was very gorgeous. There were pool and wedding hall in the hotel. But the hotel's meal taste was bad, especially the curry and rice. It was very cold. 

I stayed at a pension for two nights. The pension's staff were very friendly, so I felt relieved. The pension's meal was very good, for example ski soba and Sata andagi. They were very delicious. I helped to make it. 

In Okinawa, I could have very rare experience. For example, I did diving and canoe. It was very interesting for me that I did there the first time. The sea was very beautiful and I was impressed it. I went to Churaumi aquarium. The whale sharks were very big and great, and there were sea turtles and rays. I saw that it was very fun. I bought a lot of souvenirs, for example prawn rice crackers, sea grapes, rare seasoning and Arthur figurines. I was able to spend much time with my friends too, so it was fun. 

I could also learn many things from this trip. For example, Okinawa's history, about sea, fish, traditional and local people's minds. Okinawa's history and tradition were very important. We should tell t he next generation, because the war was very sad, so I hope we didn't have to occur war again. 

My first trip abroad

My great memory is school trip to Australia two years ago. We went to Cairns. It was first time to go abroad, so I was excited and nervous. When we got to Australia, I felt strange. Because before we left Japan, it was winter. But we got to Australia, it was summer. It was very hot and humid.

First day of school trip, we went to zoo and botanical garden. There were a lot of animals and plants. Koalas were very cute. Then, we rode on a flying gondola. Since the bottom was transparent and its construction was simple, I was very scared. After we rode on it, we met our host family.

On the second and third days, we stayed at a host family’s house. There were many troubles. But thanks to many troubles, I could learn a lot of things, such as difference between Japanese culture and Australian culture. Third day, I had my 17th birthday!  

On the fourth day, we went to the Great Barrier Reef. When I saw it, I was so impressed, because the sky was blue, a brisk wind was blowing and sea was very clean and the surface of the sea sparkled in the sunlight. I had never seen such a beautiful sea. I was so enjoyed swimming. Then I went to shopping with my group. I bought many souvenirs for my family.

Last day, we boarded on airplane to Japan. When airplane took off, I felt sad. But at the same time I thought that I want to come here again.

My school trip was very fulfilling. So I will keep this memory forever. 

Memory of mine

One great memory of mine is school trip. When I was 17 years old, I went to Canada with my friends and teachers. It was my first time taking an airplane and going abroad. So I had a lot of anxiety and anticipation. It took about 9 hours to fly from Japan to Canada. We would stay in Victoria for three days and Vancouver for two days.

First, we went to Victoria by ferry, and we were divided into the groups. My group did a home stay with a Sikh husband and his wife for three days. They were very sweet to up. They took us to many places. For example, large shopping center, the totem pole which is the highest in the world and the sea. Especially, Beacon Hill park is very memorable. There is the bronze statue of Terry Fox. He was a famous runner of the artificial leg. I thought he was a really wonderful person, and I was inspired by these words, "Dreams are made possible if you try."

Finally we went to Vancouver and stayed for two days with my friends. We enjoyed shopping and sightseeing there. There were many beautiful places. But I feel regret for not speaking English with many people. If I could speak more English, I would have had a lot more communicated. I learned from this school trip, "Don't be afraid of making mistakes." I often said this words but I couldn't. So I want to study English hard and communicate with many people around the world.

Hakkeizima Sea Paradise

I’m going to write about Hakkeizima Sea Paradise. Last summer, I went there. It is an interesting place. I remember it was so hot because I went there around the middle of August. It lies in Yokohama in Kanagawa. Every year, it is visited by a lot of people. The number is about 4,500,000. Especially, that is crowded with families in summer vacation. I think it is a place that children and adults can enjoy. The cast distributes a lot of balloons that children like, and there is a spot that everyone can play in the water. You can see the sea, and feel sea’s smell from there because Kanagawa prefecture is next to the Pacific Ocean. By the way, do you know this place? It is an amusement park that is constituted by an attraction, a shopping mall, and an aquarium. As I have said above, it is very popular by children. But in addition to the children, it is visited by husband and wife, and many couples. I’m living in Higashi-Matsuyama now. It takes me 2 hours to go there by the train. It’s so far. If I leave the house early in the morning, I am in time for opening of the park. It is already full of visitors at about 9:00a.m. It is like Tokyo Disney Land.

After having arrived there, I got on the roller coaster first. There was a long of the line. I was surprised. I waited for a turn for middle for a long time under the hot weather. I was all of a sweat and my heart was pounding! The name of the roller coaster is the Leviathan. This is the meaning called a huge animal coming out to the Old Testament. The picture is very scary. Because speed was fast, it felt like a body floated to me when it made nose dive. The water splashed on the way, too. There was thrill and was fun. This was impressive for me. The aquarium had a calm atmosphere unlike an attraction. Because there was cool, and it was dark I was healed. There seems to be 700 kinds of fish. The place has the most beautiful tunnel. It called the Aquatube which a fish swam close. There is projection mapping that project a picture on the heat. After enjoy an attraction and aquarium, I ate an ice cream because I was hungry. It’s yummy. I like ice cream very much. Around the 8 o’clock p.m., a lot of fireworks were displayed with music. It was very beautiful and colorful. Many people watched and took pictures. The time was about 15 minutes. It’s short, but I felt summer. In the shopping mall, I bought cute straps.

Hakkeizima Sea Paradise is an interesting place to be able to enjoy enough during a day. I want to go this summer if I have time. A barbeque and fishing are possible there, too. A few years ago, I often went fishing with my father, and my brother. So I like fishing. I wasn’t able to do with them last year. It is one of the place that I want to recommend if there is the person who is worrying where you go to in this summer. Everyone can enjoy if you go with a friend, or a lover. I have not seen such as amusement park in Saitama. Therefore I felt charm. You must visit this place!

Sometimes, a place does not have to be in a physical location. A place, in this case, could be a state of mind. It could be where we locate our hopes, dreams, and wishes - or a place where we might have felt we were at a low point in our lives, but found how we could move ourselves on from. 

The speech contest

One great memory of mine is taking part in the English speech contest for the first time when I was a first-year high school student. After I entered high school, I was worried about being unable to adjust myself to new school life, though most of my classmates had already made friends and enjoy chats. Just in those days, my homeroom teacher recommended me to participate in this contest. This contest is organized by a certain university, and we give speeches for five minutes about our favorite themes. In addition, this has the regional competition and the prefectural competition, which one who won the regional competition will advance to the prefectural competition. At first, I thought it was impossible for me to give a speech in public, but I decided to enter it after I was told by the teacher this was also to improve my English.

As soon as I decided it, I began to make a draft. I determined the title “My Dream” because I wanted to give a fresh impression with a subject of future-oriented thinking. I started from about one hundred words, and in the end the manuscript of more than six hundred words was completed. However, here I faced the biggest barrier for me: I hadn’t been training in pronunciation until then. I’m not a returnee student or I don’t have any experiences of studying abroad, so I had to learn it from scratch. I managed to understand the minimum difference of pronunciation and get the secret of intonation after I practiced though few signs of improvement see, and finally the day of the speech contest has arrived.

That morning, the teacher said to me, “Don’t try to do your best. Enjoy!” These words eased my tension, and I could give a speech in a relaxed manner. As a result, I won the contest, and I advanced to the prefectural competition. Although I could not win a prize there, I had a lot of valuable experiences I could never have had in usual school life.

This would have marked an important turning point for me. It was a so big challenge. I also took part in this contest when I was a second-year and a third-year student, but the first time left the strongest impression in my mind. Through this speech contest, I learned the importance of “trying.” It was maybe because I assumed by myself I couldn’t do it in everything that I had gone into my shell until then. There may be something you regret doing, but you cannot get anything, much less reflect on it unless you try. I will never forget this memory. This is my pride.

My school life

This is my best memory. I’ll tell you about my high school life. I refused to go to school twice in junior high school and high school, because human relationship wasn’t good. I thought that I failed in junior high school, so I tried my best at high school. However, I also failed in high school. I entered from private junior high school alone, so I was seen with strange eyes by around people me. For example they told me I was “smart,” “rich,” and “I can do anything”. That’s why I was a title of honor student at school. There were many people depending on me, but some people were jealous or someone who gave a grudging. The high school isn’t very clever, so I always had higher grades, so more jealous people increased.  

I advanced to a special class in the 2nd grade. It was good to be able to study more, but mild bullying began. So I have lunch at the stairs by myself, and I don’t have free time off for class many times. Finally I can’t stay in class. Then decided to discuss with my mother and change to school the 2nd grade in February. I began to attend high school credits in February. There were children and individual persons, come in like me. So I was able to contact my friends and teacher at my own pace. I was able to face my new self at that school. So I don’t regret changing to the school and I thought that it was rather good. I could graduate safely and I also met good friends.

It was a difficult high school life, but without this experience, I wouldn’t be myself now. So, I chose this as my best memory.

More will be uploaded in time. I hope you enjoyed these samples of writing on this theme!

Images: Top - screenshot from https://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/popsbrain/10418294.html/Kaendoki statue, Naganuma, Niigata - by Kropsoq - photo taken by Kropsoq, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/Hakkeijima Sea Paradise - screenshot from w/index.php?curid=429223/http://www.seaparadise.co.jp/english/pleasureland.html

All rights reserved on sources of screenshots to the copyright holders. I do not own the rights to these images. Uploaded for illustrative purposes only.