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Home town

 Where is your home town? 

     My home town is Kawanishi-machi that is in the south part of Yamagata-ken. It’s just a small country town. It is surrounded by mountains. I grew up near a rice field but I’m pleased with the town. I didn’t know how wide the world is. I was a child.

      When I was a high school student, every day I went to the nearby city which is a little big and famous for beef. There are karaoke shops, convenience stores, and fast food restaurants and aren’t found in my smaller hometown. I enjoyed the city life with my friends. It was then that I decided to go to a bigger city after I  graduated.

      After that I lived in both Sendai and Tokyo. I studied hard, worked hard, and played a lot. Thoughts of my hometown gradually faded away. The rice-field-boy had become a city guy. Soon, I had a family and I realized that they had become my personal hometown.

      But sometimes, I miss the view of the mountains, the sunset, the sounds of wind through the rice field, the smells of the snow, and the tastes of meals that my mother made. Recently I go there once every 3 months. My mother passed away a long time ago and the town is getting old. However, my true home town stays still in my heart.

 

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