先ずは日曜日に吹雪の中を彦根文化プラザまで朗読を聴きにきてくださった皆様に厚くお礼申し上げます。
さて、翌日はボストンへ発つ日。帽子もバッグパックも真っ白になりながら、右手に杖、左手は娘の腕につかまって必死に駅まで歩きました。近江鉄道も新幹線も雪で遅れていたため、取り敢えずは予定通りの列車に乗車。米原駅では積雪防止に両側のホーム下から線路めがけて勢いよく水が噴射されていました。静岡駅を過ぎていくつものトンネルを潜った後に、突如、富士山が窓いっぱいに現れました。思わず手を合わせたくなるようなあまりに見事な富士の姿でした。
飛行機は夕方の便でしたが、成田空港で余計な予定を入れた為、今回はあちこち歩くはめになり、おまけに出発ゲートが一番端。リハビリを兼ねてとはいえ、歩いた距離は長く長く正直、泣きたくなる程でした。
これからしばらくは極寒のボストンで過ごします。また色々な報告ができたらと思っています。
First of all, I would like to thank the people who came to our reading performance at Hikone Bunka Plaza on such a snowy, stormy day.
Well, the next day was the departure day for Boston. In the snowy morning, I walked to the local station holding a cane in my right hand and my daughter's arm in my left hand. Both our hats and backpacks were white with snow, and it was miserable. Due to the snow, the local railway and Shinkansen were delayed. We saw the water strongly spurting out from both under platforms to the rail in order not to let the snow accumulate on the rails.
Passing Shizuoka Station and several tunnels, we suddenly saw Mt. Fuji out of our left window. It was so beautiful and powerful.
The departure time of our flight was in the evening, but since I had plans at the airport, we needed to move to several places in the airport, and the gate of our flight was the farthest, so we needed to walk a lot and it was really a burden for me.
I will spend days in Boston where it is the coldest season. I would like to give interesting reports from here.
