長野県の北方の須坂市と高山村は新しい英語のパンフを作った。
須坂市の市街の蔵の街並みや田中本家、大自然の臥龍公園や米子瀑布、峯野原高原など、
高山村の温泉や滝、一本桜など、
それぞれの町の魅力を英語で説明してある。英語圏の観光客がきっと喜ぶ。
作者のKさんが出来上がった資料を見せに来てくれた。評価としてはバスなどの交通情報や、地名は日本語も足した方が良いとか、私の経験からアドバイスしました。しかし、今回のパンフの英語文章はただ日本語から翻訳されたのではなく須坂在住のアメリカ人が自然な英語で書いた。有難い事。
須坂にゲストハウス「蔵」は最近に出来たので海外からのバックパッカー達に好評だそうです。そして、同じ須坂市で豊樂庵と言うお寺でドイツ人のお坊さんがいらっしゃって、座禅や仏教の修行を英語とドイツ語で提供している。
こうやって長野県の観光が段々と国際的になってきた！
Two towns in northern Nagano Prefecture have recently produced English-language brochures: Suzaka City and Takayama Town.
Suzaka's brochure promotes the 'kura' earthen-walled storehouse district and Tanaka Honke Museum in the town's center as well as the city's natural attractions of the Yonago twin waterfalls and the Minenohara ski resort.
Takayama's features the town's many onsens, spectacular waterfalls and distinctive singular cherry trees.
Komiyama-san, the designer of the two new brochures, came by Kamesei Ryokan to show them to me. I gave him my opinion, which was they could use more info about public transportation and that he should have added the place names in kanji (Chinese characters), but overall they are very useful. One reason is that the English text isn't simply a translation from Japanese, but a local American living in Suzaka wrote it all in native English. I am jealous -- Chikuma City's soon-to-be released new English brochure has some seriously hideous English text.
Suzaka City recently saw "Guesthouse Kura" open, so English-speaking backpackers now have a place to stay. And also in Suzaka is Horakuan Temple whose monk is a German lady that offers zazen meditation as well as Buddhist studying and counseling in English and German.
Nagano's tourism is becoming more and more international!
