筑北小学校の校庭に、まっすぐな青空がひろがる。明日はいよいよ運動会。誰もいないグラウンドにも、子どもたちの歓声がもう聞こえてきそうだ。校舎は静かに佇み、空は高く、雲はやわらかい。明日が、すこし楽しみな日。
English
A clean blue sky stretches over the grounds of Chikuhoku Elementary. Tomorrow is undokai — the village’s annual sports day — and though the field is empty this afternoon, you can almost hear the cheers already gathering in the dust. The schoolhouse sits quietly. The sky climbs. The clouds are soft and unhurried. It is the kind of afternoon when a small village holds its breath: chalk lines drawn, lanes measured, lunch boxes half-packed in kitchens up the valley. Nothing is happening, and yet everything is about to. Tomorrow, you sense, will be a day worth looking forward to — just a little, in the understated way Chikuhoku tends to look forward to things.
