In 2020, I visited Tsumago, a post town that retains the historical remnants of Japan. Nominally, I was there to evoke the oldness of the city and walk along the Nakasendo that connects Edo and Kyoto with the feeling of an old traveler.

In the Meiji era, new railways and roads were built, and Tsumagojuku, which lost its function as a post town, continued to decline. Eventually, in the ’40s of the Showa era, the village was preserved and the landscape was restored, and the cityscape of Tsumagojuku was reviewed.

To protect the townscape, the people of Tsumago created a resident charter centered on “do not sell, lent, or break” houses and lands, and while living here, the precious property of the townscape of the Edo period they are passing it on to posterity.

Kiso-Komagatake is a mountain located in the south part of Nagano Prefecture, and it is the mountain of the Central Alps. The altitude is 2,956 meters.

There are the peaks of Nakadake (2,925 m), Houkendake (2,931 m), Ina-maedake (2,883 meters), and Kiso-maedake (2,826 m) around the main peak. I succeeded in climbing the summit of Mt. Nakadake (2,925m).

I am neither a mountaineer nor a mountain photographer. I’m a traveler who is open-minded and free from the flow of things.

In other words, I come across what I am looking for in my life, something more interesting than planned, and I move forward.

There are many cities all over the country. A city you want to travel, a city you admire, a city that will remain in your heart forever.

When you think about the charm and value of a city, you realize what kind of time a city is accumulating.

There is time that has been handed down and stored in the scenery of the city, in the products, in the lives, and in the people we meet.

This time is history and culture.

I say that it is another time, which is different from the big clock at the station. Kōfu is a large basin, and the valley is a large vessel.

The charm and value of the city of Kōfu will be how to learn and be aware of what kind of time has been stored in this vessel, and how to store it in the future.

And literary arts, writers, and works can be said to be the products of each city.

credit

music [Yasuharu Nagura – “Basilica Random” (from “”Sketches of Barcelona”]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYHz-_9IZ-Q

You cannot truly enjoy it unless you have the joy of earning yourself the effort to obtain what you asked. Pleasure is deeply associated with subjectivity. It’s a joy because you ask for it.

A life whose independence is impaired is empty.

I think it’s my life but not my life.

credit

music [Yasuharu Nagura – “the recovery of soul life” (from “The Recovery of Soul Life”)]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHINiWrdVKs