You don’t know how good your hometown really is until you get older.
3月の終わりになりますが、妻のご両親とともに私の実家を訪れました。ちょうどテスラ試乗会の前の週でした。私の実家は静岡の東部にありまして、6歳から19歳（1浪で大学）までこの家で過ごしました。
Why did I come back at this time? It was because I didn’t come back in the New Year. If you drive from Tokyo, it takes about an hour and a half, so it’s not that far. However, I was caught up in the so-called « homecoming rush », so I decided not to move during the New Year holidays to avoid the rush. Even so, I thought it was about time to go and say hello to my wife’s parents, even though it was quite late. At the same time, I had never taken my wife’s parents to my parents’ house, so I chose the end of March when everyone was available and decided to go back to my parents’ house.
We stayed in Izu for one night that day. We stayed at Izu Nagaoka Onsen. To be honest, the accommodations were not worth the price. But I had a great time with my wife and her parents.
翌日は伊豆観光。まずは近くの[highlight]「韮山反射炉」[/highlight]に。ここを訪れたのは、高校の遠足以来。私の母校である高校がこの辺りにあるのですが、高校1年の頃、ここに行った覚えがあります。反射炉は当時からそれなりに有名で、観光客もちらほら見かけることができたスポットですが、近年は地ビールができたり、あるいは世界遺産認定を狙っていることもあってか、昔のイメージからするととても賑わっている感じがしました。
There was also a volunteer guide, who may have been there since then. There, I received a new explanation of the « reverberatory furnace. The volunteer guide told us about Eiryu Tarozaemon Egawa, who led the design of the reverberatory furnace, and how he was very proud of the fact that such a wonderful asset remained in this place. It was very nice. Eiryu Tarozaemon Egawa is also the founder of my alma mater. I felt again the greatness of the founder’s achievement.
ちなみに、現在の[highlight]東京の「お台場」という名前の由来[/highlight]は、江戸末期、ペリー来航後、江戸防衛のため、幕府が反射炉を築いたこの伊豆韮山代官の江川太郎左衛門英龍に命じて、ヨーロッパ式の海上砲台を建設させた場所であったというところから来ています。
When I was in high school, I was so familiar with it that I didn’t notice its goodness, but when I visited it again after many years had passed, I realized that there were many charms that I didn’t see or understand at the time.
After that, I went to Shuzenji hot spring town, and I thought it was a wonderful place again.
It’s been almost 20 years since then. I still keep in touch with my classmates from those days through Facebook, and although I don’t get to see them as often as I would like, we still get together for drinks once in a while. It seems that everyone has the same idea that they had a lot of fun in high school and want to talk about their memories forever.
機会があればまたゆっくりあちこち訪れてみたいです。
