■ ９月のコラム
■■ 先端エネルギー工学専攻
■■■ 田辺博士准教授
いつもの夏休みが戻ってきた
皆さんこんにちは。先端エネルギー工学専攻の田辺です。9月になりましたね。コロナの規制が公式に解除されてから最初の夏休みということで、皆さんようやく晴れて夏休みらしい夏休みを久しぶりに過ごされたところでしょうか。今回のリレーコラムでは、夏休みに関連して、少し大学の話題とは離れて記事にしてみたいと思います。
今年の夏は各地で花火大会や夏祭りの再開があり、夏らしい夏が戻ってきたな…と感じられる夏休みでしたね。どこに行っても人、人、人…という感じでしたが、数年待ち焦がれた再開に嬉しそうな笑顔がたくさん。花火師さんもコロナの間いろいろ大変だったんだろうなぁ…などと考えながら眺めていると、コロナ前よりもいろいろと感慨深いものがありました。夏祭りは暑い暑い…と言いながら昼間は汗びっしょり、夜になるとなんだか涼しげ、夏休み終盤のお祭りが終わるとなんだか急に夏が終わったような気分に…と季節の変わり目を久しぶりにはっきりと感じることができたように思います。残暑の中、セミさんもまだ頑張っていますが、夜は秋の虫が活動を始めていますね。お盆とくっつけて結局3日くらいしか年休は使いませんでしたが、久しぶりに短期集中で夏らしい夏が満喫できて、今年は「夏休みのやり残し無し！」で気持ちよく次の季節に向かうことができそうです。
(写真は趣味の太鼓から：地元の町内会で夏限定で活動のゆるいつながりで継続しやすかったこともあり、始めてからかれこれ30年をこえました。ネット公開記事ということもあり背面写真ですみませんが雰囲気だけ。)
The normal summer vacation has returned.
Hello everyone, this is Tanabe from the Department of Advanced Energy. It is already September. With the official lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, I hope you are finally able to enjoy a summer vacation that truly feels like one. For this column, I would like to step away from the usual university-related topics and focus on the theme of summer holiday.
This summer, various places resumed fireworks and summer festivals, giving us the sense of summer, we used to know and love. Everywhere you go, there are crowds of people, people, and more people. But seeing the many smiles due to the long-awaited resumption after several years made it worth it. I couldn’t help but think that the fireworks experts must have gone through a lot during the pandemic… Observing this scene, there was a profound feeling that surpassed the time before COVID. Summer festivals are always hot yet exciting, and during the day, you’re sweating buckets. But as night falls, it somehow becomes cooler. As the last festivals conclude, there is a sudden mood shift, as if summer had ended abruptly. It has been a while since I have felt the distinct change of seasons. Despite still being able to hear from the cicadas, at night, the sounds of autumn insects have begun. Even though I only took about three days off including the Bon Festival, I feel like I was truly able to enjoy a short, yet joyful summer vacation. This year, I can confidently move on to the next season with no regrets.
(Attached is a photo of my hobby, taiko: It is a summer activity at the local community, and I have been doing this for over 30 years. Whilst I could only capture it from the back, but I hope you can feel the atmosphere.)
