'Ya-ya-ya. The weather's fine.

You think, "Wow, I missed that." You who thought, "Eh, it's just normal spoken language."

Right. This is the Niigata dialect, which is familiar to everyone in Niigata. Even though it is a language that is no longer usually spoken by young people (especially in urban areas), it should be a tasteful spoken language.

However, when it comes to opportunities to hear the native Niigata dialect in the city, I feel that the number of such opportunities has decreased dramatically. This is especially true when it comes to opportunities to communicate with people in the town who speak Niigata dialect (in other words, native speakers).

There are areas where both of these can be 'experienced', even in close proximity to the centre.

The place is the Honmachi Lower Market. I wandered around and found it quite interesting.

Park the car in the car park and start walking.

It's out and about. It is a familiar scene with stalls of all sizes overhanging the arcade. There were about 10 out on this day.

This is a flower shop that operates in front of the 'Hokusei Mart'. Oh! If you want to take photos, there's a photography contest here in the shopping arcade, so enter it and you'll get 10,000 yen for first prize! Then they give me half of it (laughs)."

...and the decision is that I will be selected for the first prize" and "payment of the performance fee"... (laughs). I am overwhelmed from the start. Moreover, all the regulars who were around me heard it and got very excited (laughs).

By the way, this is it, the photo exhibition. It's true... the grand prize of 10,000 yen. I think I'll come and take pictures for this.

Next up. A mother from Kameda. 'Please don't take pictures of my face! No, really! There are lots of other beautiful women here, so take pictures of them! Here! Over there!" The mother who says, "I'm so happy to see you!" looks happy for sure. Laughter. And the mother on the other side says: "No, no, no! No, no, no, no! Go that way!"... and the good old Niigata atmosphere bursts out (?). (joy)".

This is from Murakami. He wakes up at 5am and travels two hours to come here. Almost every morning. I asked him, "Have you had your shop for a long time?" I asked him if he had been running the shop for a long time, but he said it was only in the last five years or so. If that's the case, I'd love to ask him what the differences are between this part of town and other parts of town. I'd love to hear what the differences are between the Honmachi area and other areas. 'It has a human touch, doesn't it? People from other shops and people from other places are accepted. Even if you have to leave for a while to take care of something, someone is always watching out for you. There are a lot of warm people here."

'We want more young people to come here. I want to tell them what's in season and how delicious it is, and they don't get the chance to eat a lot of different foods. We'll serve you, so please come (laughs)!"

This is a shop that was out near Cupid. There are 'Okesa persimmons' from Sado Island. When I see these, I get the feeling that this is a market in Niigata! I feel like I'm in a Niigata market. When we spoke to them, they said they were from Numadari. He told us a valuable story: "I've been selling here for decades, but there used to be so many people that it was hard to get to the other side of the street.

As you can see, it was cloudy and there wasn't much of a turnout, so they had to pull out for the day, but there are places where "parents and children have been running shops for three generations". Wonderful! Incidentally, around here, a man who clearly didn't fit in the frame called out to me in a whisper, "You've got to take a good-looking picture of me. I'm not in the frame... (laughs).

After the interview.

After all, it is fun to actually visit the market and communicate directly with the locals and the people who run the market. If you think about it, it is very luxurious to be able to shop while hearing directly from a 'professional' about what they know about pickles and what 'tastes good this time of year'... I also feel that food bought after a pleasant exchange tastes many times better.

The locals, other than the market people, were also incredibly friendly. They told me useful stories in their small talk, and although it may be a cliché, it gave me a 'nostalgic' feeling. The whole shopping street will surely give you a warm welcome, and I think you'll find it interesting. I also recommend it to anyone who wants to casually brush up on their Niigata dialect skills (laughs).

Spotlight.

Honmachi Lower Market (in Fresh Honmachi)