Whether you want to spend time with others or be alone, the choice is yours.
After finishing the race, they headed to the “Wonder Device” in a separate building, and the three of them went their separate ways.
Mr. Masuda stands on the balcony with his camera in hand and snaps a photo. It’s a hobby he took up around the time he started hiking; although he initially used a digital SLR, he now uses a compact digital camera from Sony. He photographs everything—people, landscapes, cityscapes—you name it. Once he finished taking pictures, he moved to the sofa and began massaging his calves.
"Getting a massage really helps relieve my fatigue. Since accumulated fatigue can lead to bad running habits, I make sure not to neglect my self-care."
Mr. Tsuchida sat in a chair on the deck and put on his wired earbuds. He was using a Sony device and Final earbuds. While listening to his favorite music, he peered at the soles of his running shoes with his other hand.
What we’re checking here is the wear pattern on the outsole. Apparently, by looking at that, you can tell a person’s walking habits. If you’re walking naturally, the outsole shouldn’t wear down unevenly. It’s said to wear down evenly across the entire surface. If you distribute your weight properly, the strain on your shoes is reduced, which in turn reduces the strain on your body. The way he handles his gear is as if he’s both appreciating it and reading his own body at the same time.
At that moment, Ms. Nagashima was sitting at the living room table, with the book she’d brought open in front of her. It was a book on Buddhism that she said she’d just started reading.
He says his interest stems from having heard from others that Buddhism offers insights that serve as wisdom for navigating life, as well as from the breathing and walking meditations he has been practicing for some time.
By the way, walking meditation, as the name suggests, is a form of meditation practiced while walking. It is also known as “kinhin.”
“When I walk while focusing my awareness solely on the sensations in the soles of my feet—right foot, left foot—I notice the stray thoughts that pop into my mind and am able to let them go, and my mind naturally settles, so to speak. I want to do more than just know this as a sensation; I want to truly internalize it through words, so I’m currently studying it. I’ve been thinking that the sense of inner calm I feel while running might actually have some common ground with meditation or Buddhist philosophy.”
The three of them are spending time together in the same house. Yet what they’re doing is completely different. One is fiddling with a camera, another is listening to music, and the third is reading a book. The house featured in *BESS* is a place for everyone to spend time together, but it’s also a place where, like these three, each person can immerse themselves in their own hobbies.
