My trivial thinking

Happy New Year, 2018! 「福如雲」 written by Kazuyo, my wife. Happiness comes again and again, but you can't catch happiness easily. It's like a cloud on the sky.  

I went to renew my passport with my wife. I took a picture from the window of the passport center. The other side of this bridge is Kansai International Airport.

Now in April, and the cherry blossoms season has come. We have little snow in Osaka even in the winter. But it was cold last weekend. Mountains in Osaka were covered with snow. Mt. Kongo,  1125m Mt. Iwawaki,  897m

Today, Senshu International City Marathon was held. Many runners ran through my town. I didn't run, of course.  When I was a child, I was not good at any sports. I learned judo for two years when I was twenty-four years old. After that, I went around Shikoku by bicycle with camping gears, a sleeping bag and a tent. When I was in my early 30s, I ran a marathon once. The time was about four hours and thirty minutes. I also ran a mountain running race for 35 kilometers. I began walking in mountains in my mid-30s. But more than ten years ago I hurt my knee in a mountain. Now I can go jogging or walking but I can't go to steep mountains or run for long distances anymore. I go to the library instead of going to the mountains.

Shin-Imamiya Station in Osaka, where three railways, Nankai Line, JR Loop Line and Hankai Line intersect is comparatively crowded. But passengers who go out of the station are few. Lately I often come across many foreign tourists or backpackers here. A long time ago, when Japan was in the age of high economic growth, this area that is known as "Kamagasaki" was a largest slum where many day laborers lived. In the early morning a number of buses used to come and scramble for laborers. When I was young, not for a living though, I'd worked here as a day laborer for some days. In fact, laborer riots took place twenty four times from 1961 to 2008. People who remember the old reputation tend to keep away from this area even now. Times have changed. The age of high economic growth was over, and many laborers were gone. Cheap Hotels once called doya for a day laborers are now for foreign tourists and backpackers who look for cheap lodgings in Osaka. ...