No.7 ”Guns, Germs and Steel, and a Strawberry Sponge Cake”
It takes 7days to go Moscow from Vladivostok by Siberian railroad even if you don’t get off any stations. It’s very hard to take it for 7 consecutive days, so I got off at Irkutsk and Omsk station. Of course I had to stay in the train for total 7days. To make good use of free time, I started reading “Guns, Germs and Steel: Jared Diamond”. This is a bestseller of cultural anthropology. Summarizing the book simply, “The human race has lived being affected by natural features. There is no differences in any races, though they have different qualities of their cultures and how much their civilization have progressed” By the way, this simple title that just put 3 words means 3 factors which considerably affect mankind. I think this book is ideal for tourists.
No.7 銃・病原菌・鉄、あとショートケーキ。
シベリア鉄道でウラジオストクからモスクワまでいく場合、途中下車しなくても七日間もかかってしまう。さすがに乗りっぱなしはきついのでイルクーツクとオムスクで降車したわけだが、それでも合計七日間列車に乗っていることには変わりない。暇な時間を有効活用するため、ジャレド・ダイアモンドの『銃・病原菌・鉄』を読み進めることにした。文化人類学のベストセラーだ。内容を簡単に要約すれば、「人類は住む場所の風土に大きな影響を受けながら生活してきた。文化の質や文明の進歩具合に大きな違いはあれど、そこに人種的な優劣はない」というものだ。ちなみにこの単語を並べただけのシンプルなタイトルは、人類に大きな影響を与えた三つの要素のことである。この本は旅先で読むものとしてうってつけだと思う。
No.6 the Siberian Ground and the Great Mother
I was looking at the blue of Japan sea shone with summer sun from Vladivostok to Khabarovsk, and the Siberian ground were being reflected on the train window after the area. Only white birch and glass lands spread between town and town. when I saw small villages which has only 4 or 5 houses, I thought “How do they live here?”. I will never know the people that I can’t imagine who they are, but traveling in unfamiliar lands might be able me to manage to find out the point of contact of them. When I told her “I will travel in this country”, a middle-aged Russian lady gave me a message by using translation application of tablet, “There is the will of God”. I met some foreign tourists from Korea, France and Uzbekistan on this train. I will never see them again, but I could see them because I started traveling.
No.6 シベリアの大地と偉大なる母
ウラジオストクからハバロフスクまでは、夏の陽光に照らされた日本海の青を眺めることもできたが、それ以降はずっとシベリアの大地が車窓に映し出されていた。町と町の間には白樺の森と草原がひたすらに続く。時折現れる数件の集落を見るたびに、「彼らはここでどうやって生きているのだろうか？」と考えてしまった。僕の想像の外に暮らす彼らとはこの先一度も交わらないと思うが、そこに無理矢理にでも接点を生み出すことが、見知らぬ土地を旅するということなのかもしれない。「これからこの国を旅する」という話をすると、「神の思し召しがありますように」とタブレットの翻訳機能を通してメッセージをくれたロシア人のおばさん。僕と同じようにシベリア鉄道で旅をする韓国、フランス、ウズベキスタンの旅行者たち。再会することはもうないだろうが、旅に出たからこそ彼らに出会えたのだ。
No.5 on the Siberian Railroad Heading for the West
I took a 3rd class train of the Siberian Railroad from Vladivostok to Irkutsk, one of the biggest cities situated in the center of Russia. Different from the 1st class decorated with luxurious furniture and the 2nd class that lots of compartments stand in a row, we can see the usual lives of the locals in the 3rd class.
No.4 at the End of the East
When I was a kid, I was often watching the TV program, “Special Mission Research 200X” The contents of the program conducs researches about paranormal phenomena and mysterious incidents to uncover their secrets and go into a new world. I had been fascinated with the variety of pictures constituted like a drama and sitting with excited feeling in front of a TV set at every Sunday 8 PM. Looking back them, there were lots of uncertain phenomena such as UMA (Unidentified Mysterious Animal), the prophecies of Nostradamus, and the Bermuda Triangle, but I was really enjoying knowing the worlds which were totally different from my world. The name of the fictitious company investigating some incidents is ”Far East Research Corporation”. I just found the name “Cool!”, but it means that the drama was literally being taken place in Far East. Eastern part of Siberia and East Asia are called “Far East”. It’s because the name had been made by Western society. Of course there is no center of the world’s surface, but I like this name. In Japanese language, this word is written as “極東”. “極” means the end or edge, and “東” means East. I just find the meaning, The end of East, “Cool!”
