地球には日本とアメリカがあって、
外国という国は無くて
コアラはオーストラリアに棲んでいる。
そんなことを知った頃
まだ電車にも自転車にも乗れなかった僕が
一人で行ける世界は狭かった。
アメリカを知りコアラの生息地を知っても、
小さな僕にとっては
小さな足で歩ける場所が世界の全てだったのだ。
家の周りと幼稚園、小学校にあがれば通学路、そのくらい。
小さい足で歩ける世界は、やっぱり小さい。
でも、まだ知らない事ばかりだった小さい僕は
その世界を小さいとは思わなかった。
花が咲き花びらが散る、タンポポの綿毛が飛ぶ、
変な形の石、蝉の抜け殻。
そこにある物が、起こることがなんでも不思議で面白くて、
楽しくて、どうでも良い事でも大発見のように喜んだ。
そんな記憶がある。

あの頃の僕には、小さな世界がきっと
大きな実験室のように見えていたのだろう。

There were “Japan” and “America”.
There were no such countries as “foreign countries”.
Koalas lived in Australia–

At the time when I came to know about these things,
The world I could go on my own was a small one.
I was unable to ride on trains or bicycles.
Even though I knew about America and the habitat of koalas,
For me at my tender age, my entire world was limited to places
to which my short legs could take me
They were just about limited to the areas around our house
and the kindergarten.
When I entered elementary school, the road to and from school
joined that world.
The world had remained small for one with short legs.

However, for me,
I didn’t think my world was small.
Everything that existed
and happened there was marvelous and interesting.
The flowers that blossomed and scattered their petals,
The fluffy hairs of the dandelions that flew in the air,
The stones with strange shapes
and the cast-off shells of the cicadas….

On looking back through these memories,
my small world must have looked like a large laboratory.