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Vol.69
Pioneers |
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Mar 4,2023 |
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When the number of coronavirus cases started rising, I was told not to come to the office because my company thought I have a higher risk of dying when infected due to my age and smoking habits. Therefore, I had no choice but to relocate to a place in the mountains in western Kanagawa Prefecture and now work remotely about half of the weekdays.
Immediately after moving, I ended up participating in local activities. I also have to do my share of the household, so I have been busy all day long.
In addition, my wife and our neighbor's wife said that they would use a vacant lot in front of my house with permission from the landowner to make radishes. To grow radishes, we need to remove obstacles in the soil, such as rocks and grass roots, because even small rocks can bend or split radishes.
Perhaps I should not have, but I took the task of plowing about a 15-tatami-mat area of the lot, such as digging up to 40 centimeters and sifting the soil.
However, when I started digging with a scoop, many large rocks and grass roots appeared. Two neighborhood men helped with a jack digging up large rocks that I cannot remove, which made me think how hard was life for the old pioneers.
Sakamoto Ryoma, a Samurai at the end of the Edo period, said in a letter to his sister in Tosa, "I'd like to dig up and rebuild Japan." Well, I make fun of this famous phrase; "Dig up Japan? It's too small. I'm digging up the earth."
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