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His Ideas 8 ~ Discover Locality

October 28, 2020

His prefecture has had the least amount of coronavirus cases in the country. He had once thought about the reasons for this : its large land area, low population, away from major big cities, relatively a small number of tourists... But, there are many prefectures which have a smaller population, further away from major big cities, fewer transportation options like the bullet train and highways. But, he recently had another idea. He reflected about some of his experiences. One experience : It was a long time ago, when he was in his late 20s, he went to a coastal area in his prefecture with his two sisters for a vacation. He couldn't remember why he decided to go there. Maybe because he had never been there before. It was a small island with no inhabitants. They drove for about 2.5 hours, then rode a ferry for 10 minutes or so. It was a beautiful island, white sand, a transparent sea, and colorful fish. He felt like he was on a tropical island in the Pacific Ocean. He wondered why the island was unknown. Even now only a few people know about the island.   Another experience: He had worked in the tourism section of a city government, and was assigned to develop special food products of the city. He went to other cities in the prefecture in order to do research, and came to know that there are a lot of local foods and products. He remembered one time in a small city, he was offered various local foods that were served in square boxes. The customers could take their favorite food from the boxes ~it was a kind of buffet. He was amazed that all of them were delicious! Now he was a member of a volunteer guide group for foreigners who visited his city. He has been guiding for about 5 years. From this experience, he could say that there are so many products and places that he had never known or seen before being a guide. His new idea about why his prefecture had the fewest cases of coronavirus was because people in his prefecture don't need to go to other prefectures because they already have a rich tradition of food and products as well as various spots of landscapes.   But, to come to think of it, even from his limited travel experiences, there are a lot of attractive food and wonderful environments in other prefectures as well. There is a saying, "The base of a lighthouse is dark." People tend not to realize their own localities' attractions because they are too close, and they seem commonplace. People demand "anti-commonplace" for tourism because they want "to get away" from their normal everyday lives. [His Idea #8 : Discover Locality]   The point is to get "anti-commonplace" from our living area. ・Bike Ride He started to ride on a bike a couple of years ago, and realized one thing: even on the road that you had been passing by an uncountable amount of times by car, if you walk or ride a bike, the scenery becomes completely different; and, it's at your own speed. You can carry your bike on a train or in a bus if you put it in a bag. This would allow you to enjoy a new type of trip. ・Local Food & Products There are many traditional food and products from the old days in each area. Some say that the food that is produced in one area would be best matched with the dishes that were made from that area; thus, the food becomes more delicious. The mass production and delivery system enables our life to be cheaper and more convenient. But, it makes food and products less characteristic. This time would be a good chance to "re-see" our own food and products that are made in each local area.

No.406



*discover :発見する
*locality :地域性、地方
*reflect :思い起こす
*inhabitant :居住者
*assign :仕事を割り当てる
*buffet :バイキング方式
*commonplace :平凡な、新鮮味のない
*characteristic :特徴的な、特有の