After leaving Jigokudani, I rejoined Route 36, the coastal road heading for Tomakomai.
On the way, I decided to take a break near the sea for eating the bento for lunch I just bought at a convenience store.
After lunch, I entered Tomakomai City.
There was a ferry terminal near the national highway, so I went to see it.
There were many riders and Charriders who seemed to have now landed in Hokkaido.
Because they might be the first landing in Hokkaido, some people were hesitant to wave their hands in return for my greeting to raise a hand in a friendly manner.
The ship looked really big.
I landed by train, but I plan to take a ferry on the way back.
I was thinking, “I wonder if the ferry,that I’ll take on my way home, is this big.”
For some reason, whenever I come to a place called Minato, all sorts of dramas occurred to me and I got excited.(Am I watching too much TV?)
As the weather was nice today, I noticed that I was taking a detour.
Another detour today was Lake Utonai.
Lake Utonai was about 10km northeast from the ferry terminal.
Many swans were swimming in Lake Utonai.
“Swans are migratory birds. They’re still on the way for traveling just like me…
No, it’s not the same!
In the case of the migrants, it’s a life-or-death journey. They have to keep flapping their wings while flying the distance of thousands of kilometers or more.
If they get tired and rest, obviously they will fall into the sea.
It’s quite different from traveling with an extravagant pastime like me.
Then there was a swan near me, but when I watched her closely, I noticed that the swan in question injured its wing.
“This migrant… did she fly with the wing as it was to be here from a very long distant place?”
Because it was the long journey, her wing was painfully broken.
“Can you fly with the wings?”
If possible, I wanted to bring her to Mutsugoro Animal-Kingdom in Hokkaido.
However, the swan didn’t care about such things at all, and (I didn’t know if she did care about it,) silently caught food and ate it just for her life.
I was touched by the sight of her living in the present situation to the fullest, even though she hurt like that.
“If this were a human, some of them would have given up on flying long ago…”
I thought the swan was cute and watched her for a while.
After that I left the place, I did pray that the wounded would live a long life.
At that time, a large plane was flying powerfully in the clear sky.
Vol.2 RUN-02 Episode 5