A clear blue sky has finally returned. After yesterday’s rainy dog show, Mount Fuji is visible again from the train window, making me wish the weather had arrived just one day earlier. My body, however, is still feeling the effects of the weekend. From sore muscles to world affairs, Okinawa politics, Ukraine, Gaza, and even sumo, this Monday morning brings together all sorts of thoughts as another week begins.
A blue sky has spread across the morning.
It is a little muggy, but Mount Fuji is visible from the train window. Yesterday, even though I was right at its foot for the dog show, I could not see so much as its lower slopes.
I cannot help thinking how nice it would have been if this weather had arrived just one day earlier.
Still, perhaps those of us who took part in the competition in the rain developed a certain sense of camaraderie.
I suppose I was tired.
I slept for more than seven hours, which is unusual for me, and yet I still feel as though I could use more sleep.
On top of that, my right ankle has worsened again, and now my lower back hurts as well.
All I did was move back and forth inside a square a little over ten meters across and jog around it a few times. But for someone like me, who normally strolls along at a leisurely pace, it seems to have been a greater physical burden than I expected. Now I have sore muscles here and there.
Once my foot recovers, I should probably add a little jogging to my walks with Anne, and start doing some simple stretching every day.
Yesterday, in the Okinawa gubernatorial election, a newcomer and former Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications official defeated the incumbent, who had served two terms over eight years, and became the new governor.
He is from Naha and, as it happens, a University of Tokyo graduate.
He seems very sincere and refreshingly new to the role. I hope he will settle in for the long haul and work steadily to raise prefectural income and address poverty.
The new governor also supports the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps base to Henoko.
Perhaps this will finally allow the long-running base issue to move forward significantly.
I am not an Okinawan resident, so I do not think I am in a position to say too much. Still, as a resident of Kanagawa Prefecture—which ranks third after Okinawa and Aomori in the presence of U.S. military facilities—I have various thoughts about the issue.
But the problem is simply too complicated, especially now that it is intertwined with the rapidly changing global military situation, so I will leave it there.
In Ukraine, it was reported that a passenger train was struck by a Russian drone shortly after a train carrying foreign dignitaries had passed nearby.
Russia seems to me to be a country where almost anything goes.
The situation between the United States and Iran remains at a standstill.
I have also noticed that I see far fewer reports about Gaza these days.
I wonder what is happening there now.
Today is a newspaper holiday in Japan, so there was no morning paper.
Wondering how the Grand Sumo Tournament had gone, I checked online and found that the top-ranked wrestlers had come through safely.
That was a small relief.
Now then, time to get on with another week.
A blue sky does not solve everything, but it is still a good way to begin a new week.
・・・
lower slopes — 山の裾野。山の低い部分。
camaraderie — 仲間意識、連帯感。同じ経験を共有した人同士に生まれる親近感。
at a leisurely pace — のんびりしたペースで。「ちんたら歩く」を自然な英語にした表現。
settle in for the long haul — 腰を据えて長期的に取り組む。
at a standstill — 膠着状態で、進展がない状態。
come through safely — 無事に切り抜ける。ここでは上位力士が順当に勝った、という意味。
#BlueSky #MondayMorning #EverydayThoughts #WorldAffairs #Sumo #Kamakura #JapanesePathologist
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