Obama … Japan!
Thursday, November 6th, 2008
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You may have heard that there’s a Japanese town called Obama. Well, it’s true! The town is in central Japan, on the island of Honshu, in Fukui Prefecture. To understand the origin of the name Obama, you need to know more about the two characters that form that word:
小浜 (Obama) small + beach
As it turns out, Obama is “small beach,” making it one of those wonderful Japanese place names that derive entirely from nature. (We have a bunch of those in English, too, but somehow Pleasant Hill and Pine Valley seem horribly suburban and bland by comparison.)
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Posted by Eve Kushner in Kanji Curiosity | 1 Comment »
