COOL VOLUNTEER BOYS

Nowadays, many young boys began to volunteer works that picking up litter, and cleaning around the JR Ogaki station.
The young boys are students of Gifu Keizai University, and they are member of baseball team in this university. In fact, this volunteer work is for their training. Their university is three kilometers away from the JR Ogaki station. After that they run to the station, they pick up litter like cigarette butts, and cleaning around the station. Surprisingly, the volunteer work starts at 6:45 in the morning before the peak of the rush hours. After they clean the station, they run back to their university. Their baseball manager said the volunteer work is a good community service for Ogaki City. Therefore they want to volunteer work at the minimum once a week.

NAKAMURAYA

I’m going to report about the best Chinese noodle restaurant in Ogaki! The restaurant is named ‘Nakamura-Ya’. Have you ever heard about the name? It’s the most famous Chinese noodle restaurant for ‘tsukemen’ in Ogaki.
Tsukemen is a kind of Chinese noodles. They separate noodles and soup like this. (First picture) You can eat it a same way as ‘soba’. Just dip the noodles in a soup, and taste is really good. Especially the soup is a rich taste, and the original noodles are delicious and chewy.

In addition, when you visit there at lunch time, you can eat original rice balls for free. At last, when you visit there, you should be surprised at that you have to line up to eat “tsukemen” at lunch time particularly, even if it’s on usual days, because the word on the street that Nakamura-Ya has really great ‘tsukemen’ was running through other prefectures such as Osaka and Aichi prefectures.
When you visit Ogaki, it’s a chance to eat ‘tsukemen’ at NAKAMURAYA!








Nakamura-Ya is in front of the Ogaki Hospital and next to a convenience store.
2-58-1, Terauchi-cho, Oogaki-city, Gifu

FREE JAPANESE LESSONS

We started teaching Japanese for FREE in Ogaki. Many Brazilian people live in Seinou area in Gifu. However, some of them lost their jobs due to the worsening economy these days. Therefore, an international association of Ogaki gave the lessons for Brazilian at “HIRO Gakuen”, and the lessons are intended for the unemployed. “HIRO Gakuen” is a name of school in Ogaki, and the school opens for Brazilian children on usual days.

They took the lessons twice a week, and each 3 hours. They learned about basic Japanese like the way of filling in resumes. In addition, while they were taking the lessons, they could leave their children in the school. I think it’s a great system of education, and it’s convenient for women who have children.

The article appeared on February, 10th 2009, so the lessons are already closed now. This is a Japanese lessons in Ogaki, but we have other volunteer works that teaching Japanese to foreigners. I hope that it will be increasing more like the volunteer works.

WALKING FASTIVAL

This is the Ogaki news!
The walking festival took place in October 18th in Ogaki. The festival was shown to commemorate the 320 years memories of “Okunohosomichi”. It was written by Matsuo Bashou. He was a haiku poet in the Edo period. He traveled around many regions and he wrote haikus. He wrote in his diaries when he traveled around Japan. “Okunohosomichi” is a one of his diaries. He quit writing “Okunohosomichi” when he reached Ogaki. Today, Ogaki take place the walking festival every year. Many citizens of Ogaki took part in it, and they walked Tarui station through Ogaki station. They walked around a distance of 13.4 kilometers. Fortunately, it was a beautiful weather, so it was a good day for walking around.
I think that it is a good chance to exercise and to notice Ogaki’s history. According to the news, most of the participants are with their family and friends. We have the walking festival in Ogaki every year. Why don’t you join in it with your friends next year?

Introduction

Hello, my name is Natsuki Izumino. I am a university student in Gifu Prefecture in Japan. I have lived in Ogaki for 20 years old.　It is Ogaki city in Gifu. There are 160,000 people living there. It is compared to Tokyo, Ogaki is small rural town, but we have a lot of nature such as rice field, parks, green, and Ogaki is surrounded by several mountains and Ibi river. First, we produce some foods such as persimmons and pears, and water in our town is very clean, so we can grow rice with a chemical-free. Second, there are 4500 Brazilians in Ogaki, so some Brazilian children learn with Japanese children in elementary school or junior high school. That is interesting, and it is a good chance for children to communicate with foreigners. Those are just a little news about Ogaki. Therefore, I would like to introduce much more about my hometown in this blog.