白いいとThe First Day of Summer

About this story

Three classmates walk into the sea of trees below the mountain on the first day of summer break, following tape that other people tied to the trunks. There are no birds. Mika says she has been here before, and she keeps walking past where the tape ends.

An original story written by Yomimaru for JLPT N5 readers.

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What you'll learn

Boku, Kenta and Mika go into the sea of trees below the mountain on the first day of the summer holidays. No birds can be heard, white tape from earlier visitors is tied to the trunks, and Kenta repeats a local story about the jorogumo while Mika walks on ahead.

Key vocabulary

樹海じゅかい	jukai — a sea of trees; a forest so thick that from above it looks like water
女郎蜘蛛じょろうぐも	jorogumo — a spider that takes the shape of a woman
テープ	plastic tape, the kind tied to a branch to mark a route
いと	thread; a single strand
森もり	forest, woods
くつ	shoes
鳥とり	bird
あいだ	the space between two things

Grammar points you'll meet

• と N5と marks quoted or reported speech: the words or the thought come first, then と, then the verb of saying or thinking.

  行いこうと言いったのはケンタだ。

• ～んです N5～んだ (casual) and ～んです (polite) turn a statement into an explanation — not just 'he waits', but 'the thing is, he waits'.

  おんなの人ひとになって、男おとこをまつんだ。

• ～く/ ～になる N5An i-adjective drops い and takes く before なる to say something became that way: くらい → くらくなった, 'it got dark'.

  森もりは、だんだんくらくなった。

• ～から N5から after a plain clause gives the reason. Here it is the whole answer: the reason is offered and nothing else is said.

  前まえに来きたから

• ～ないで N4The negative て-form, verb + ないで, means 'without doing it' — the action that is skipped, then the action that happens.

  ミカは木きも見みないで、下したも見みないで、「こっち」と言いった。

• ～ていた (V-te ita) N4～ていた is the past of ～ている: a state that was already there when someone looked. Not 'it stuck' but 'it was stuck to her hand'.

  ミカの手てに、白しろいいとがついていた。

Cultural notes

• 樹海 — the sea of treesA 樹海 is a forest so dense that from a mountainside the canopy looks like water. The best known one in Japan lies at the foot of Mount Fuji. Underfoot it is uneven volcanic rock rather than soil, there are no proper paths away from the marked trail, and one stretch of it looks much like the next.
• White tape on the treesWalkers who leave a marked trail in a Japanese forest tie strips of plastic tape to branches so they can find the way back. Tape left by other people is a double signal: someone came this way before, and they were worried enough about getting out to mark it.
• 女郎蜘蛛 — the jorogumoThe 女郎蜘蛛 is a creature from old Japanese tales: a spider that can take the shape of a woman. The same name belongs to a real golden orb-weaver, common in Japan from late summer, which strings its web high between two trees.

Topics & grammar