写真は札幌ー東京便の空中写真。上は函館山の上空からの遠景と、下は青森市街の空撮図。ここのところ、40-50年ぶりくらいに「窓際席」側の指定をする習慣になっております。なぜか、仕事であちこちと飛び回っている期間には、ひたすた通路側席でトイレに行く利便性一択だったものが、意識が変わった。
そういう風に変化して見るとはじめて飛行機で移動し始めたころ、高校３年生当時のことが新鮮に記憶再生していた。新左翼運動が華やかな時期で、ハイジャック事件なども起こる直前期だった。一度などは欧州までの旅もあって、ちょうどベトナム戦争期で、やや半島を迂回するような航路だったようで、ベトナム半島全景が映し出されて、目を瞠りながら「この下で・・・」と妄想を掻き立てていた。
空中から地上を見下ろして、いわば巨視的に地形とか地理とかを実感で把握できるということで、実感できる地理の授業というような意味からも興味深かった。一応、歴史とか地理とかは大好きなテーマ領域だったので、生きた社会勉強ではあったのでしょう。高校生とはいえまぁ子どもなので、どうも優先的に若い世代の教育みたいなノリで、飛行機会社はそのように座席配置していたように思っています。その当時は飛行場の窓口に行ってはじめて搭乗席が決められたような記憶がある。ちょっと年上の優しいお姉さんたちが配慮してくれたのか・・・。
人生時間という経験の濾過を経て、ふたたび窓際側に意識的に席を取るようになって、いわば天空からの視線の予行演習（笑）的に、雲と地形の織りなすパノラマにおっとりと感動している。
ただ、こうして上空から見る視線では人生時間の経験知がそこに投影されて、たとえば青森の市街など、いろいろな情報記憶が再生されてくる。そういった人文的な情報の明滅が、現実の空中景観とシンクロして、一種のタイムトラベル感も盛り上がってきたりする。
「そういえばあのあたりで、こんなことがあったなぁ」「あそこで会ったあの方はいま？」みたいな。忙しさにかまけていた時期には、とにかくタイムイズマネーという気分で、この移動時間はまったくのムダか、興味のない時間みたいな認識だった。乗る前までと降りてからのことばかりに意識が集中して、乗っている時間はただ「早く着かないかなぁ」と忍耐の時間だったように思う。
「狭い日本、そんなに急いでどこへ行く」というキャッチフレーズが昔あったけれど、最近ふたたび脳内で記憶再生されてニコニコしております（笑）。
English version⬇
Healed by the Natural Formations of Clouds and Landforms
As we enter the latter half of our lives and the final stages of our lives, various experiential knowledge is regenerated and restored. Does it give you a taste of how to deal with that kind of time? ...
The photos are aerial views of the Sapporo - Tokyo flight. Above is a distant view of Mt. Hakodate and below is an aerial view of Aomori city. Recently, for the first time in 40-50 years, I have gotten into the habit of selecting the “window seat” side of the aisle. For some reason, during the period when I was flying from place to place for work, I had always chosen the convenience of going to the restroom in an aisle seat, but my awareness has changed.
When I looked at it in this way, I had a fresh memory of the time when I first started traveling by air, when I was a senior in high school. It was a time when the new leftist movement was in full swing and just before the hijackings and other incidents occurred. The plane was on a route that bypassed the peninsula during the Vietnam War, and the entire view of the Vietnamese peninsula was projected on the screen, stirring up my fantasy of “under this...” as I gazed blindly at the view.
Looking down on the ground from the air, we were able to grasp the topography and geography from a macroscopic point of view. History and geography were my favorite subject areas, so I guess it was a real social study. Although I was a high school student, I was still a child, so I think that the airplane company was giving priority to educating the younger generation, and that is how the seats were arranged. At that time, I remember that boarding seats were decided only after going to the counter at the airfield. The slightly older, kinder, gentler ladies took care of that....
After the filtration of life time, I have consciously taken a seat by the window again, and I am now quietly impressed by the panorama of clouds and terrain, as if it were a rehearsal for looking from the sky (laugh).
However, when I look at the panorama from the sky, I am able to project my life's experiences and memories of the city of Aomori, for example, into the panorama. The flicker of such humanistic information is synchronized with the real aerial landscape, creating a kind of time travel sensation.
It is as if one were saying, “Oh, I remember when this happened in that area,” or “Is that person I met there still there? I was too busy to think about it. When I was busy, time was money, and I thought that the travel time was either a waste of time or uninteresting. I was so focused on the ride before and after I got off the train that the time spent on the train was just a time of patience, wondering if the train would arrive any sooner.
There was once a catchphrase, “Japan is a small country, where are you going in such a hurry?
