日本語 Japanese Ask Questions Thread 6

If you have a question about the language, ask it and fellow 4channers might see it and answer it for you.

Japanese - Ask questions thread
http://dis.4chan.org/read/lang/1174719097/1-40

日語 Japanese Ask Questions Thread2 質問
http://dis.4chan.org/read/lang/1206158123/1-40

日本語 Japanese Ask Questions Thread 3
http://dis.4chan.org/read/lang/1267485093/1-40

日本語 Japanese Ask Questions Thread 4
http://dis.4chan.org/read/lang/1302350850/1-40

日本語 Japanese Ask Questions Thread 5
http://dis.4chan.org/read/lang/1330050873/1-40

>>731
At its core, Rikaichan is really just an unannotated edict. It doesn't even list the "common word" (which is usually the reading to use when you have no other way to tell) tag like most other edict-based dictionaries. In other words, it's good for quick lookups, but get your hands on something more solid.

For this particular instance:
1) ほとり pertains to the "on the bank of/ on the side of" (→きわ) meaning more so than vicinity/neighborhood. In general, 辺りを見回す (looking around) is read あたり.
2) ほとり is not a standard reading for 辺り; it's also associated with 畔 (also a nonstandard reading, and in this case it'd be an example of 義訓).
3) Google is a somewhat reliable indicator of usage.　Compare results for あたりを見回す vs ほとりを見回す (be sure to enclose both in quotation marks for "as-is" search). There are actually cases where you would use ほとりを見回す, but they're preceded with 湖の or 池の (talking about the bank of a body of water).