川の石Every Morning at the River

About this story

Kaori leaves the house at half past six every weekday and her old dog stays behind. The boy next door keeps telling her what the dog does down at the river each morning. It carries a stone there, sets it down, and looks up as if somebody were standing over it.

An original story written by Yomimaru for JLPT N5 readers.

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What you'll learn

On a snowy weekday morning a woman leaves for work, saying goodbye to the fourteen-year-old dog sitting by the gate. Yuuta, the boy next door, tells her the dog goes down to the river every morning and carries a stone away. That evening the dog comes home wet, and on Sunday she wakes to find it gone and follows its tracks out through the gate.

Key vocabulary

犬いぬ	dog
門もん	gate at the edge of a property
ひも	cord, string; here a dog's leash
川かわ	river
石いし	stone
ぬれていた	was wet, had got wet
タオル	towel
くつ	shoes

Grammar points you'll meet

• ～ている N5The te-form plus いる says an action is going on right now, or that someone is in the middle of doing it.

  「だれかとあそんでいるみたいだよ」

• ～たり …～たりする N5Listing two or three actions with たり means the person does these things among others, in no fixed order. It is how you describe a habit.

  「うん。上うえを見みたり、川かわへ走はしったり、石いしを持もって来きたりするんだ」

• ～んです N5んだ / んです at the end of a sentence explains something the listener did not know. The boy uses it to tell her what the dog does.

  「その石いしを持もって、どこかへ行いくんだ」

• で N5で after a noun marks the tool you use to do something: with a towel, by bus.

  わたしは、タオルで犬いぬをふいた。

• Dictionary form+と N4Dictionary form plus と means that when the first thing happens, the second follows. Here she gets home and finds it is already past seven.

  うちに帰かえると、七なな時じをすぎていた。

• も N5も replaces は or が and means "too" or "also". It quietly adds the new item to something already said.

  足あしもぬれていた。

Cultural notes

• A gate, and then a doorMany Japanese houses have a 門 at the edge of the property as well as a door on the house itself. The strip between them is half public, and it is where neighbours stop to talk without going inside.
• Shoes are left lined up inside the doorShoes come off in the entryway and are set down side by side, facing out. Because they stay there, a glance at the floor tells you who lives in the house and who is home.
• Children speak politely to adult neighboursYuuta says おはようございます, not the plain おはよう he would use with a friend. Japanese children learn early that the neighbour next door gets the polite form.

Topics & grammar