Hometown

Late afternoon yesterday, I went to a supermarket in the town next to ours, where I used to work at my own clinic. I used to do shopping on the way back home after a day work. I was purchasing the materials for supper. On the way back home in the same way, I have taken a few photos using the brand new Canon.

Sunset. With a bit of magnification, the quality of the photo is not very excellent. Sun is setting toward the horizon in the west over a river named Kinugawa.

Far in the north western direction, we could see the range of the Nikko Mtns. The left one with some snow on the top is named Nantai San. It has a round shape characteristic for this mountain. In my memory in preschool age, this mountain stood as it is now. 

Taking these photos, I have realized that it had been over half of my life since I moved this area from Tokyo. Almost 2/3 of my life. At first, I was intending to stay here for sometime while I was serving residency at a med school hospital. In the end of a year those days, I always took my family to my parents' home in Tokyo on an old car. We spent a day or two there. It was the place where I had grown up and my parents were living at that time.

In several years, my parents, completely retired from their works, have come here and have started living with us. Until then, that town in Tokyo was my home town.
Without being conscious of it, this area has become my hometown in my mind. No home to return to in Tokyo any longer. Moreover, my parents are not there, of course, including in this area. These scenes have made me realize it clearly yesterday.

Consciousness of hometown has been surely changed in my mind. My parents are not on the earth anywhere. I would head to somewhere my parents are waiting for me.