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■ Retiring from my job -
Relaxing on a cruiser with friends
After graduating and starting my first job, I joined the company's yachting club. However, when the economic bubble burst, the company stopped providing subsidies. Even so, about 10 like-minded members pooled their money to keep the club going.
For the past 40 years, the same group has gathered in Enoshima every summer. Eventually, some of these like-minded members even bought a cruiser, which added to the fun.
I myself have become independent and opened an architectural design office, and now live in Osaka, so I can only participate a few times a year, such as for summer camps. I can't steer the boat, I'm just on board, but I really enjoy spending a wonderful time with my friends.
The photos are from the Enoshima yachting camp on July 29, 2023. About
10 of us gathered. The photo in the middle is from that evening, when we
all enjoyed dinner at a restaurant on Enoshima while looking at Mt. Fuji.
■ My latest hobby is indoor LED hydroponics .
I've started growing plants indoors using LED hydroponics as a hobby. While
exploring how to spend my time in retirement, I decided to start by growing
red leaf lettuce.
The second photo was taken about 55 days after sowing the seeds, and I'm
about to start eating one plant a day.
■ During my time working for a company,
I joined the yachting club .
It's a strange coincidence, but when I was a new employee, a senior colleague
whose desk was next to mine at work also happened to be in the room next
to mine in the dormitory, and he invited me to join the yachting club.
Every Sunday morning, if the weather was nice, I would wake him up at 7am
and we would drive from Tokyo to Enoshima. At the Enoshima Yacht Harbor,
we enjoyed sailing small yachts (dinghies). It was during the bubble economy,
a time when companies could afford to spend money on club activities. Until
I was about 30, I would go to Enoshima more than 20 days a year. On days
with bad weather, we would all go for a drive. Of course, the yachting
club also went skiing together in the winter.
I also joined the pottery club .
At the time, the design department alone had about 300 employees. Many
in the design department were graduates of art universities, and we often
went to pottery classes in Daikanyama and Kichijoji.
Twice a month, we would all enjoy sailing in Enoshima, and we would casually
boast about working an average of 120 hours of overtime per month. It was
a truly, truly fun time.
■ During my university years,
I was a member of the mountaineering club.
I went to the same university as a senior I met at a high school camp
, and naturally joined the mountaineering club where he was. Unfortunately, I don't have a single photo of the club activities. So, I've included a photo of my hiking boots, which I haven't been able to throw away for 40 years.
Every year, I would go from my university in Kyushu to Mt. Daisen in Tottori Prefecture for snow training in the spring, and to Shinshu in the summer, spending about 20 days in the mountains. I have many memories of traversing the Northern and Central Alps. I
also experienced winter mountaineering. On New Year's Eve in 1980, the day before New Year's Day, I encountered a blizzard on the summit of Mt. Nishihotaka (2909m elevation), and since we couldn't pitch a tent on the narrow summit, six of us huddled together under a single sheet, enduring the cold all night. Climbing Mt. Kasagatake (2898m elevation) in winter is also a good memory. I
still keep in touch with my friends from my mountaineering club days.
■ During high school,
I was a member of the mountain skiing club.
In high school, I wanted to do some sports, so
I joined the mountain skiing club.
In the club, we would normally hike across Mount Rokko with rocks and other things in our backpacks as part of our training, and in the summer we would go to the Northern Alps and climb peaks like Mt. Yarigatake. There was even a time when we climbed Mt. Jonen with two watermelons in tow.
In winter, we enjoyed Nordic skiing and downhill skiing in the Hakuba area.
Back then, the song "Oyoge! Taiyaki-kun" was playing all day
long on the slopes.
I met all sorts of people and made all sorts of connections. While camping on Mount Rokko, a senior university student asked me about my future career plans, and I ended up asking him for advice, which led me to learn about the path of architectural design.
 
I was still fond of crafting in high school.
The photo above was taken during our high school cultural festival, when
for some reason our class decided to make a papier-mâché elephant, and
I made a model out of bamboo sticks..
■ Art and crafts during elementary and junior high school
Speaking of hobbies, I've loved drawing and crafting since I was a child.
There used to be many gas tanks near Osaka Dome, and I even painted a picture of them on an 80-size canvas using oil paints. I had it displayed in the living room of my house for a long time, but it disappeared at some point.
When I say I loved crafting, I don't mean plastic models or anything like that. I would buy paper and wood and make models of houses and boats, or make furniture that I could actually use. There weren't home improvement stores like there are now, so I would buy my materials from the local lumberyard.
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