What remains

It's like a monument,
Like some kind of object,
Or like ruins,
It remained there, unchanged from before.
These are the stairs and pillars at the entrance of the old junior college building.


The junior college we attended closed down in the early 2000s.
I don't know if the school building was used for anything afterward, but it was demolished several years ago.

A friend who works at a university told me, "The campus has changed quite a bit from how it used to be."
So, I visited our alma mater for the first time in a long time with some friends I'm still close with.


The view from the main gate had changed considerably.
Forty years have passed since graduation.
The row of cherry trees that used to be near the gate had all been cut down.
Since we've all passed sixty, the cherry trees are getting older too.
The smooth trunks of the remaining cherry trees had grown thick, gnarled, and magnificent.

Most of the old school buildings have been rebuilt.
The remaining buildings also had their exterior walls repaired.
No matter where you look, you can't tell it's old.


If you go up the slope a little, where the junior college building used to be,
Only the entrance stairs and pillars remained.
There were no explanatory signs or monuments.
It was just there.

I wonder if today's students know about this?
There used to be a junior college here.
I wonder what they think when they pass by here.
It's probably irrelevant to them.

For us, it's better than having it disappear without a trace.
Perhaps it was for the best.

I tried climbing those stairs.
An autumn breeze swept across the hilltop.
The surrounding greenery hasn't changed since the old days,
The laughter of female students can no longer be heard here.




Our return home coincided with the time when students were leaving school.
Laughter could be heard from among the students heading towards the station.

Just as we once were.