Hello friends! Do you ever wonder whether you could navigate an American city using signs? I know that when I was in Japan, I had a hard time reading all of the kanji in advertisements and in train stations. But being able to read official signs is important! It could really save your life, actually! 
皆さん、こんにちは！アメリカの街を標識で通りを進めるかな、と思ったことはありませんか？私は日本に住んでいた時、広告や駅の看板の漢字を読むのは大変でした！でも、看板を読めることが大事です！ 命を救ってくれるかもしれませんよ！

What kinds of words can you learn while walking around in a city? Let’s find out!
街を歩いていると、どんな言葉が見つかるのでしょうか。見てみましょう！

One common type of sign is a traffic sign. These signs can help you drive safely. Some of them will warn you about where you should and should not park.

一般的な標識のひとつに、交通標識があります。これらの標識は、安全な運転に役立ちます。駐車すべき場所とそうでない場所について警告してくれる看板もありますね。

Here are some traffic signs:

Street sweeping:  道路清掃 
Tow away zone: レッカー車撤去区域

cross the street: 通りを渡る
wait for green signal: 青信号を待つ

Note: Why does it say "push button" and "wait for green signal"? Shouldn't it be "push THE button" and "wait for THE green signal"? Usually, yes. However, for street signs and newspaper headlines, we sometimes don't use articles like "a" and "the"!
注：どうして「push button」「wait for green signal」と書いてあるのでしょうか？「push THE button」と「wait for THE green signal」ではないのでしょうか？普段はそうです。しかし、道路標識や新聞の見出しなどでは、「a」や「the」といった冠詞を使わないこともあります。

Bike lane: 自転車専用道

Can you see the bike lane in the photo? It's the two white lines on the street!
 写真の自転車専用道は見えますか？道路の白い線です！

Reserved parking: 専用の駐車場

This is a reserved parking place for people with handicaps. In this case, it means that you can't park anywhere to the right of this sign. 
これは、不自由な人のための予約駐車場です。この場合、この看板の右側は駐車してはいけないということです。

Was that fun? Did you learn something? I hope so!

Keep an eye out for my next blog post on reading in the city! There's plenty more signs to read! Or try out one of my lessons. The "Untranslatable English and Japanese" class is great if you want to learn lots more natural and fun expressions that you can use in daily conversation!