When I was teaching English to junior high school children, I used to ask a question, “Which do you like, mountains or sea?” to teach them the usage of an interrogative determiner. However, I think this is kind of an interesting question to ask people around us if we can deepen the reasons why we choose either of them. It’s because this is not just a simple question, but I believe that the answer may reflect one’s personalities and way of thinking.
Personally, I love mountains more than beaches. This is simply because the atmosphere of the mountain makes me feel calm. People who prefer to enjoy marine sports may argue that mountain climbing is nothing interesting as we just have to keep climbing up to the summit. They may also insist that it can be a boring activity that requires patience. Yes, true. The higher the mountain is, we need stronger patience. Nevertheless, I love mountains as I can concentrate on my internal voices while aiming for the summit of the mountain.
My great-grandfather was a war survivor who was sent to Manjuria during World War Ⅱ. He retuned to Japan with his wife and a kid, who was my grandfather, having left most of his possession in the country. After the defeat of Japan, those war survivors were allocated wilderness land as compensation. So did my great-grandfather. He was given a part of wilderness mountain. He maintained this mountain very tidily until his death at the age of 83. When I was a kid, he used to ask me to visit his mountain to catch beetles and pick mushrooms, wild plants and chestnuts together. I remember that visiting his mountain was a lot of fun for me. I was also looking forward to tasting the seasonal mountain vegetables that he used to deliver to my house. However, he passed away when I was 10 years old. This was my first experience seeing people escape from our world. Thereafter, we stopped visiting this mountain and, eventually, we sold it to other people since no one could maintain it.
Until I become a university student, I completely lost interests in climbing mountain. However, in Japan, we do have an interesting proverb:
What is learned in the cradle is carried to the grave.
This means that what we have learned in our childhood remains with us for the whole of our lives as a part of our characteristics. If this is true, my childhood memory of loving mountain visiting should be instilled in myself.
One day, when I was a master student, I participated in a hiking event in my town just because I wanted to have some exercise. This opportunity allows me to remind my old memories of loving mountain hiking. During this event, other participants taught me varieties of edible wild plants and the way to prepare them at home. In fact, those were the plants that my great-grandfather used to bring to my house every season. Of course, without any doubt, I truly enjoyed eating them and become hooked to visit the mountain. Thus, it seems that I am a person who was raised to prefer mountains to sea.
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