A Trip on a Winter Day

   I like traveling around. When we were young we often went driving tour. usually with our sons. After retirement we visited several foreign countries, sometimes on cheap tours, sometimes visiting friends abroad. The most interesting and exciting part of traveling is not historical sites or good cuisine, but seeing local people’s lives and talking with people. I remember the cheerful conversation with young girls in Uzbekistan and the life of the people I saw in India.

But recently it is becoming difficult. Reason1 Money. We live on a small pension. Reason2 Health. We are getting old for a long flight.  Reason3 Time. We are taking care of the garden, and so it is difficult to leave home long. (Our trips were always in winter.) And my husband is responsible in some activities for peace and local NPO, and it also makes us difficult to leave here long.

In this cold season we have nothing to do outside, so we sometimes go walking around, one day into the forest and another day visiting the ruin of a Medieval castle, and the other day finding so many ponds. It’s like a small trip to find out our town again.

Today, we picked some wild butterbur scapes on a rice paddy bank, which we like for tempura, then walked into the forest, where we found someone’s footprints, a rabbit’s or a fox’s,  And then we went to see a line of icicles along the river. The water from the cliff gets frozen and makes various icicles, some huge like pillars. Instead of flying to warm Hawaii, we made a short but interesting trip for free..  But telling the truth, I would like to travel around the world!!