spontaneous writing [20220908]

We've been visiting our grandma and my aunt's house since yesterday.  They live in Nagano where I was born.  I love there with rich nature and fresh air.  It takes us 4 hours to come to Nagano by car.  We left the city and saw the mountains and arrived here.  As we drove our car,  the view from the windows really changes through that 4 hours.  

It sometimes reminds me of a story in the World War Ⅱ.  I think I read that in a book.  An old man looks back at his childhood and tells the story.  His town has got an air strike and most of the buildings were destroyed.  He could see his elementary school directly from his home and it felt like much closer than before.  

In my neighborhood in Tokyo,  there are a lot of tall apartment houses and other buildings, so you can't see the station or the school directly from home.  But in Nagano there is hardly no tall building and you can see mountains far away in 360 angle around you.  I just wonder what if I put the town I live in Tokyo onto this village in Nagano.  I just wonder which is farther the nearest station or the mountains I can see right now.  I  wonder if I feel the station is closer, if there is no tall buildings in Tokyo,  

I heard that people in Africa speak with each other with a longer distance between them compared to Japanese people.  One of my friends who lives in Kanagawa came to my town and told that it really felt like Tokyo because the houses are built close to each other.  Once my family accepted a boy from Australia as a host family.  He came to our house and asked me if the houses along the street were all our house.  They are built too close to each other so he didn't recognize our house and other ones of our neighbors.

I even think that the density of the houses are related to the physical distance between us.  I usually feel really uncomfortable when someone comes too close to me.  Some people seems they don't really care and tend to come too close to me.  I grew up in a town with many houses gathered close and I have been experiencing really crowded train many times, and I think they are one of the reasons why I want a distance with other people.