The Day We Set Out for Kobe

“Where are we going today?”

My wife asked me.

I had told her several times that we were going to Kobe.

But my wife’s memory is, well, like that sometimes.

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To be precise, we are going to Kanagawa first, and then Kobe.

In Kanagawa, we will attend a family gathering to celebrate my mother’s birthday.

She is turning 79 this year.

My wife and I will join the gathering, and then drive straight on to Kobe.

I had wanted to leave in the morning.

But the earliest restaurant reservation we could get was at one in the afternoon.

So we will not be leaving Kanagawa until later in the day.

We will probably arrive in Kobe around midnight.

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We plan to take breaks along the way and drive without rushing.

There is no need to hurry.

We will take our time, stopping for meals and perhaps getting some sleep along the way.

It will be a long drive, but it may be the first time since our trip to Toronto, Canada last year that my wife and I have gone somewhere far away together.

Thinking about that makes me look forward to it a little more.

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Tomorrow, I will hold a treatment event in Kobe.

From 8:30 in the morning until 5 in the afternoon, I will work with each person one by one.

Many of them will be people I am meeting for the first time.

What kind of bodies will I encounter?

What kind of stories will I hear?

I am already looking forward to it.

Treatment means observing the body.

But it also means touching, in some small way, the time that person has lived through.

Every body we meet for the first time carries a story we do not yet know.

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It has been ten years since I last went to Kobe.

The city must look quite different from what I remember.

I have changed too.

The place where I live has changed.

The way I live with my family has changed.

Even if I return to the same city, perhaps I will see a completely different landscape.

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We will celebrate my mother’s birthday, and then head straight on to Kobe.

From time with family to time with clients.

From ordinary life to somewhere a little farther away.

It will be a short journey, almost like a brief summer vacation.

I wonder what kinds of encounters are waiting for me.

I wonder what kind of Kobe is waiting there.

For now, we will simply take it slowly and arrive safely.