In the Chinese zodiac, it's the transition from the Rooster to the Dog. My New Year's Day in 2018 began, just like last year, without much change.
Woke up at 5:30. Came to the living room, first boiled water, made coffee, and skimmed through the thick morning paper.
The world seems mostly quiet. I breathe a sigh of relief and take a sip of my New Year's coffee.
Around 6:30, the TV grow lively. Soon, the first sunrise of the year over Mount Fuji. Crowds of devout men and women have gathered in the pre-dawn twilight across the country. …………
Blessed with perfect weather, the first sunrise is magnificent from nearly every viewpoint. Diamond Fuji is also visible. All this is on TV.
Here, I am comfortably glimpsing the nation's New Year celebrations from my air-conditioned living room.

At the invitation of my elder daughter and her husband, this year we'll spend New Year's Day at Mount Tsukuba. They've reserved the “Tsukuba Grand Hotel” near the famous Mount Tsukuba Shrine.

We left home after 1:00 PM. We boarded the Musashino Line at JR Shin-Urayasu Station, transferred to the Tsukuba Express at Minami-Nagareyama Station, and arrived at Tsukuba Station just before 3:00 PM. My daughter and her husband, along with her mother-in-law, Mrs. S, picked us up by car.
The single road to the hotel, just past the shrine, was endlessly congested. What normally takes 30 minutes took over two hours.
The view from the room. Mount Fuji might be visible in the distance to the right??

After soaking in the hot spring, dinner started at 6:30.
About two hours of gathering, enjoying local cuisine and sake. We relaxed deeply, savoring the rich, gentle buzz of the New Year. After returning to the room, I fell asleep while my wife was in the bath.

The next day, the 2nd, we visited Mount Tsukuba Shrine for our first shrine visit of the year and went to the summit observatory. We managed to pay our respects amidst the throngs of first-visit worshippers. Happy New Year!
In a corner of the shrine grounds, a seller hawked toad oil. His sales pitch rang out clearly in the blue sky and crisp air.

From the observation deck reached by a few minutes on the cable car, I survey the distant scenery shining in the fine weather. The pure white peak of Fuji, the silver-white Nikko mountain range, the Tokyo Skytree... and far off, over there—is that my apartment building!?

On the way back, our couple were driven to Tsukuba Station, then took connecting trains without any trouble, arriving home by 5 PM. Thanks to that, we were granted a happy start to the year.

Having passed my 77th birthday (Kiju) by half a year, I feel my physical and mental decline.

Prioritizing physical health, I never skip going to the local sports club. It's more about loosening up than training – stretching exercises and soft aerobics, totaling about an hour. It used to be a four-day-a-week morning routine, but somehow it's now only Mondays and Fridays. Still, I console myself that continuing at all is better than nothing. When was it that I aimed for 10,000 steps a day with my pedometer?

What bothers me are my blurry vision and stuffy nose. They're probably symptoms common to the elderly, but they're not pleasant.

A little over 30 years ago (1985), just before turning 45, I suffered a cerebral infarction. That was the main reason why, three years later at age 48, I left Daido Steel, where I'd worked for a little more than 25 years, and embarked on an uncertain entrepreneurial venture. It seemed like a picture-perfect downfall, but fortune smiled on me. While causing my wife and children trouble, I've managed to scrape by on my own terms to get this far.
But my body bears the scars, feeling a handicap in my left leg and hip. Even if full recovery isn't possible, I know the sports club is my lifeline for maintaining my current condition.

Until a few years ago, I actively enjoyed traveling with my wife, both domestically and internationally. Almost all trips were planned by me.

Looking back at the trips documented in photo books and travelogues, specifically from age 70 until now (in 2018)...

Domestically, my reluctance to travel has been glaringly obvious since the year before last. The two trips to Kyoto last year were specifically for writing an English introduction to Kyoto, so that's a separate matter.
Looking at overseas travel, it's even more stark.
After my colon cancer surgery in 2006, I was confined to home for a while. But excluding that year or so, using major travel agency tours, my wife and I managed at least two trips per year from 2002 until May 2013. (The table above omits trips up to 2009)

China, Singapore (twice), Italy, Thailand, Hong Kong, Eastern European countries, Hawaii (twice), Spain & Portugal, Vietnam & Cambodia, France, Egypt & Turkey, Central European countries, Taiwan, Morocco, the Baltic States & Poland, China, Benelux countries.

Since then, travel has ceased, except for a short trip to Bali, Indonesia (June 2014).

But what about these past two or three years? Did I become absorbed in something else instead of travel, or was there some other reason?

One thing is clear: around 2013, five years ago, I added a new square called “English Edition” to this “Viva, Seniors!”
Looking at that square now, the sheer volume is something to be proud of; almost all of it consists of English translations of my own travelogues, essays, and novels. Experiences from my time stationed in the US and overseas travel over the past 15 years or so deepened my personal understanding of Japan's unique environment and distinctive culture, fueling a growing desire to share that pride with the world.
Driven by the single-minded determination that “as long as it gets the point across, it's good enough,” I threw myself into this work for about two and a half years, from the summer of 2014 until late the year before last. The update history proves it.

This is undoubtedly one reason my overseas travel has ceased, and even my domestic travel has clearly become skewed toward the purpose of sharing with the world.
I tentatively concluded my personal introduction to Japan with two trips to Kyoto last spring. Should my motivation return, I may eventually add more.
Disregarding duplication, I'll add a section to Chapter 3.
Last year? Did I just become a homebody? Not at all. Though I didn't travel, I certainly didn't have too much free time on my hands.
I'll reveal more in the next chapter.