on a scorching hot day

I'm suffering a slight injury these days and we are in a long spell of heat wave in Japan.

However, fortunately I can honor the best athletes in the world watching London Olympic on TV, and reading is also quite comforting when I stay at home.
And most of all it is important for me to think about something cooler during such a sultry season.


I remember the day when my husband and I strolled by the bay of Kobe and took a short cruise by a small ship around the bay.  

  After Meiji era( 1868～） Japanese government pried open a country and Japan accepted Western culture and technology aggressively. Meanwhile port of Kobe became one of biggest ports in the world with the rapid expansion of industrial area close to the port.

  Geographical dimension between Kobe and Nara where I live is quite different.


An open environment of Kobe compared to Nara being surrounded by mountains makes me feel refreshing. It mainly owes to the port I think, though we can also see and climb mountains not far from there in Kobe city.

Various sort of sports, baseball, football and so on, were imported from Kobe Port and at first they were played in the enclaves for foreign residents, then extended throughout the

country.



 

In fact there is a hydrangea in my favourite hand made glass vase in front of me. It is the last flower of hydrangea in my garden.

It let me imagine the massive fire flowers of London Olympic torch which fascinates me, but to think of water seems to be better on such an extremely hot day.

Obama(小浜）which I wrote about in the previous post literally means small(小）　beach (浜）. I visited the sea shore of Obama waiting an expressway bus for going back.    

As I'm familiar with shores along the Pacific Ocean, the small beach of Obama which faces to Japan Sea looked a little sad for me.




It was just a couple weeks ago, but when I look back with a big bandage on my chin yesterday is like a day of long ago.

   

  I think again about my brother's days after he got a notification of terminal cancer.


He sometimes took a small trip with his family for making good memories, though the hardness in his mind is beyond my imagination.


Here I'd like to try to think about my favourite tanka poem which describes about sea.

海を知らぬ少女の前に麦藁帽のわれは両手をひろげていたり 　寺山修司

With my straw hat

I stretched out my arms,

my very best,

for a girl

who has never seen any of the sea

by Shūji Terayama (1935~ 1983)