Chapter 1
Y Municipal K Elementary School, which Ryosaku enrolled in, is a wooden school building built in the Meiji period that has been in operation for over 100 years.
Even though it was a rural area, there were hardly any such wooden school buildings in Y city at that time, and most of them were modern reinforced concrete buildings.
As the school song says, "A glorious history," it was an elegant elementary school with a long history.
However, there were quite a few students from other schools who made fun of this old wooden elementary school, and this created a complex in Ryosaku and the others.
At the age of Ryosaku and his friends, they probably did not understand the goodness of the withered taste of "wabisabi".
However, this historic elementary school had never had a "gymnasium," so the year before Ryosaku entered the school, a modern, unusually shaped gymnasium with a pentagonal roof was built.
In terms of location, it was built on the southeast side of the road across the road from the wooden school building.
Furthermore, the school was built in a remote location, "diagonally across'' from the image.
It was built along the school road, but during indoor physical education classes such as basketball, the children had to exit the school gate, cross the road, and walk about 50 meters to the east.
It must have been about 200 meters in a straight line from the school building.
On the west side of K Elementary School, there is the "K Castle Ruins'', which is the ruins of a castle that existed during the Sengoku period.
On the east side, beyond the railroad tracks, is the K shrine, and beyond that is Ryosaku's house a few hundred meters ahead.
Ryosaku had walked more than two kilometers every day for six years.
Between his house and school, there are fields, rice fields, and a river called the U River.
Ryosaku strolled along the nature-filled school route, wandering to and from school.
Between the school and the railroad tracks, an abacus cram school was built when Ryosaku was in the third grade.
At that time, there was a trend that the abacus was regarded as " children's habits,'' and abacus cram schools were popping up here and there in Y City.
If I were to say it now, it would be a "cram school feeling".
A small game center was opened near K Elementary School from the abacus cram school.
...when Ryosaku was in the fourth grade.
Originally, it was a so-called "anything shop" that handled elementary school uniforms, sports caps, stationery, etc., but due to some change, it suddenly started running a game arcade.
At the time, there were several candy stores across the street from the arcade, and it was a place for children to interact and relax.
There was a stationery shop in front of K Elementary School, and it was a convenient place to purchase notebooks and pencils for the K Elementary School students.
In this environment, he thrives.
