swath #2

日本の真の姿を知るために、訪れておくべき8つの場所が紹介されています。東京をはじめとする主要都市に加え、原爆ドームのある広島や、震災で被害を受けた東北地方の名が挙げられています。

8 places you need to visit to really understand Japan

To truly understand a country’s people, you need to know something about their history and where they came from. This week we offer you eight places that contributed greatly to the development of Japan, its culture, and people.
Get ready to take your understanding of the Japanese people a step further with eight historical places that have helped shaped them into the people they are today. Let’s go!

1. Hokkaido 北海道
While winter sports and the Sapporo Snow Festival are some of Hokkaido’s biggest foreign tourism draws, the importance of the island to the Japanese is for other reasons. Hokkaido has 12 prefectural national parks and wetlands, and its vast farmland produces the majority of the nation’s potatoes, soybeans, wheat and corn. With large swaths of land, Hokkaido has a huge dairy industry and its forests support commercial timber enterprises. Wildlife includes Higuma bears, Ezo squirrels, Ezo owls, white-tailed sea eagles and the red-crowned crane. (In Japanese folklore, the crane is said to live 1,000 years and grants wishes in return for one’s sacrifices). Shiretoko National Park is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site and the ice floes of Abashiri on the Okhotsk Sea are a domestic tourist draw.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/travel/view/8-places-you-need-to-visit-to-really-understand-japan

“swath”には「1列の刈草、刈跡、一刈の幅、2帯状のもの」という意味がありました。『Wisdom英和辞典』（三省堂）本文では、”with large swath of land”となっており、北海道の広大な土地の広さが目に浮かびます。同じ単語で以前先生が書かれた記事がありましたが、その記事では2番目の意味で取り上げられていました。

http://d.hatena.ne.jp/A30/20130218/1361144231

私たち日本人も、文化、歴史の面から再度自分たちの国を見つめ直してみる必要がありますね。（Starlight）