Gedo Senki (Tales from Earthsea)

20th March 2006

Number 57 - Spring and Gears

Wanting to feel spring, today I went to work on my bike.

From last week the flowers suddenly began to bloom.
Plum, Kobus magnolia, Spike winter hazel and Winter daphne[1] are all smelling nice.
In Kokubunji there are many seedbeds and I see many different kinds of flowers out of the corners of my eyes as I go past.
The cherry trees near Kokubunji station also began to blossom last week.

Speaking of cherry blossoms,
Itsukaichi highroad along the upper reaches of the Tama river has been lined with cherry trees and I'm looking forward to when it becomes a tunnel of cherry blossoms.

From now gardeners will become busy.
From now until the rainy season is just the right time for tree planting.
Whenever I look at plants, I automatically think of the time when I was designing green areas.

So, today I worked up a sweat this morning, so I feel good.
But, I'm a little worried at the decline in my fitness.
If I didn't go one gear easier it was hard going[2].
In other words my muscles had fallen away one gears worth.

This wasn't due to aging,
just lack of exercise, I'm sure.

Translator's Notes

[1]: In Japanese these flowers are Ume (梅), Kobushi (コ ブ シ), Tosa-mizuki (ト サ ミ ズ キ), Jinchouge (沈 丁 花).

[2]: That is, where he would normally use a certain gear before, he now has to go up?/down? one gear to make it easier on himself. (Sorry, I'm not a cyclist so I'm not sure of the technical terms)