Hello! Some of you might know me from various threads, but I’m Gem, an exchange student from New Zealand and living in Japan, learning Japanese(obviously haha).
Anyway sometimes I want to try read novels but my level isn’t high enough yet, and although there are reading materials for N5/N4 level, they aren’t like widly interesting, and most native stuff is, well, for native speakers who don’t need to study grammar etc. SO I thought I’d try writing my own (hopefully interesting) short story and share it for other people stuck in my shoes.
So I’m not like anywhere near done, and idk if I’ll ever finish it, but heres part 1. I’ve gotten them checked by native speakers so I hope they are correct but let me know if they missed anything.
So I’m going for ghibli vibes here, similar time setting to Howls Moving Castle, set in a rural village in the mountains. In the village there is an orphanage for girls with magical gifts, run by a kind witch called Elora.
Story details/spoilers
One of the girls finds a teapot with a painting of a boy that starts moving around(kinda like Maui’s tattoos from Moana). He tells her he’s a boy who got turned into a teapot, and the rest of the story is basically the little witches going on a quest to find the creature who turned the boy into a teapot, solving riddles along the way to find it.
So I’ve tried to keep the words easy, and the grammar easy too, but some words will be too hard so heres a word list for the first part. Sorry for the lack of furigana I can’t find a fast way to add it in and respectfully no way am I doing it all individually. Pls use a dictionary if you need it.
Bold words - Words in the word list
Word List
庭 - garden
孤児院 - orphanage
魔女 - witch
魔法 - magic
育つ - to be raised
昔々、田舎に町がありました。
その村は明るい青空の下、緑の広い山の中にありました。
キラキラ光る川で魚は泳いでいました。
そこは小さな村で、植物は石造り家の壁に生い茂っていました。
広い庭に野菜や果物の木が育っていました。
家の中で一番大きいのはエローラでした。
実は、この家は孤児院でした。
8人の女の子がこの孤児院に住んでいました。
一階に広い居間、台所、食堂、図書館、お風呂がありました。
二階に五つ部屋、小さい居間、書斎がありました。
庭では、花や野菜やハーブが育っていました。
子どもたちは、鳥小屋で飼っている鶏に卵を産ませ、養蜂箱で蜂蜜を取り、白いヤギから乳を絞って食料にしました。
朝ご飯は蜂蜜とパンと果物を良く食べて、ヤギ乳を飲みました。
昼ご飯はトマトとキュウリとチーズと肉を入ったサンドイッチを食べました。
晩ご飯はお芋とか野菜とか肉を食べながらジュースを飲みました。
女の子たちは元気でした。
English Translation
Once upon a time, there was a rural village.
This village was nestled deep within the expansive green hills, under a bright blue sky.
Fish swam in a long glittering river.
It was a small village, with cobblestone houses with plants growing up the sides of them.
In big gardens, vegetables and fruit trees grew.
Out of all the houses, the biggest one was Elora’s.
Actually, this house was an orphanage.
Eight girls lived in this orphanage.
On the first floor there was a large living room, a kitchen, dining room, library and bathroom.
On the second story, there were five bedrooms, a smaller living room, and a study.
Outside, there was a large garden full of flowers, herbs and vegetables.
Chickens laid eggs in a chicken coop, bees made honey in a beehive, and they could collect milk from a white goat.
For breakfast they ate honey, bread and fruit, and drank goat milk.
For lunch they had sandwiches with tomato, cucumber, cheese and milk.
For dinner they ate potatoes, vegetables and meat, and drank juice.
The girls were healthy.
So theres part 1, tips for formatting apprecieated. I hope someone enjoys this, and if not oh well I enjoyed writing it.
