hajimete iku machi de michi ni mayotta node, keisatsukan ni kikimashita.

to go

Breakdown of hajimete iku machi de michi ni mayotta node, keisatsukan ni kikimashita.

• で: location particle
• に: indirect object particle
• 聞きく: to ask

Questions & Answers about hajimete iku machi de michi ni mayotta node, keisatsukan ni kikimashita.

Why does 行く come before 町?

Because Japanese puts a clause that describes a noun before the noun.

So 初めて行く町 means:

• a town [I go to / am visiting for the first time]

In English, the describing part usually comes after the noun: a town I was visiting for the first time.

Japanese does not need words like that, which, or where here.

Why is it 行く and not 行った, even though the whole sentence is in the past?

This is a very common question. In Japanese, the tense inside a noun-modifying clause does not always match English tense directly.

• 行く町 = the town I go to / am going to / am visiting
• 行った町 = the town I went to

Here, 初めて行く町 describes the town as the place the speaker was visiting for the first time at that point in the story. English often uses was visiting, but Japanese commonly uses the plain non-past form 行く in this kind of modifier.

So it is not a mistake. It is natural Japanese grammar.

What exactly is 初めて modifying here?

初めて means for the first time, and here it modifies 行く.

So:

• 初めて行く町 = a town I go to for the first time

It does not mean the first town.

If you wanted to say the first town, you would need a different expression, such as 最初の町, depending on context.