An Unexpected Day Off | Hideyuki Tokuda (Dean, Graduate School of Media and Governance)
2011.01.12
Happy New Year.
I wish you all the best for the coming year.
On the morning of New Year's Day at 8:45, I gathered at SFC and headed to the New Year's party of the Endo Seibu District Neighborhood Association with members of the executive board. For me, this is not only an annual event but also a valuable opportunity to speak with local residents and the mayor of Fujisawa. This year, the conversation was lively with stories about what the Endo district was like in the old days—how there were watermelon fields around Gulliver Pond (Kamoike) before SFC was built—and topics related to the extension of the Sotetsu Izumino Line. After leaving the community hall, I made my first shrine visit of the year to Sengen Shrine, located next to the SFC Junior and Senior High School, which has also become a tradition. I prayed for the safety of the SFC campus and for the success of admissions operations.
New Year's Day 2011
Now, about the topic of an "unexpected day off," I think that rather than just one day, having a few days off would allow a small New Year's dream of mine to come true.
On a winter day with plenty of snow, I would want to go to a ski resort. When I was an undergraduate, I used to drive up to Shiga Kogen on Friday nights to go spring skiing in April. Even though it was April, I remember driving carefully on the mountain roads from around the Sun Valley area at the bottom, as the melted snow would freeze on the road surface at night. Nowadays, I would probably take the Shinkansen to go skiing, but the moment of being on a ski lift, swaying gently over a silent ski slope, is a moment of pure bliss.
If it were spring, I might take my favorite camera and lenses and go out to take pictures. Recently, I've been trying something a little different. While I used to mount the FD lenses from my old student-era Canon A-1 onto a 5D Mark II, I am now experimenting with various lenses using a mirrorless SONY NEX-5 and a converter. I'm attaching not only my Nikon and Canon lenses but also old Carl Zeiss lenses for rangefinder cameras to the NEX-5 and shooting with manual focus. Unlike autofocus, it's a bit more work, but there's a certain joy in creating unique, "off-the-mark" photos.
If it were summer, perhaps a drive to the sea in Chigasaki with my beloved dog...
Old lenses and the beach in Chigasaki
Thinking about it this way, I realize that last year I had far too few opportunities for a day to "suddenly open up" in my schedule. This year, instead of waiting for a day to "suddenly" become free, I will make a conscious effort to clear a day and try to increase the number of days where the hands of the clock seem to move more slowly.
(Date of publication: 2011/01/12)