The Farewell to My Shoes：波打ち際の「卒業式」。革靴と歩んだ湘南4時間の旅

1. 10分走の積み重ねと「一人カラオケ」
The Discipline of Ten Minutes—and Solo Karaoke

タイのジムで朝晩「10分走×2回」プラスインターバルに筋トレをしています。たまに誰もいないとYoutubeの一人カラオケで大声で歌ってます。カラオケを歌いながら走ると、結構距離が伸びても平気なんですよね。歌にはそういう力があるのでしょうか？　　この地道で少し愉快な特訓が、今回の早足での4時間踏破を支えてくれました。総合公園から湘南海岸まで、湘南海岸から湘南平まで速足散歩を楽しみました。周囲を抜き去る脚力は、日々の積み重ねの賜物です。ただ、トレッキングしているのはみなお年寄りの方でしたが・・・

In a gym in Thailand, I have settled into a quiet ritual: two ten-minute runs, morning and evening, interwoven with interval training and weights. On occasion, when the space empties and no one is watching, I sing—loudly—along to YouTube, a private karaoke session of my own making.

Curiously, when I run while singing, distance seems to lose its weight. Fatigue arrives later, almost reluctantly. Perhaps music carries us farther than we expect.

It was this modest, faintly whimsical discipline that sustained me on a recent four-hour fast-paced walk. From a general park to the Shonan coast, and onward to Shonan-daira, I moved with a rhythm that felt earned. The strength in my legs—the ability to pass those around me—was nothing more, and nothing less, than the accumulation of those daily ten minutes.
Though, admittedly, most of my fellow trekkers were of a more advanced age

2. 草ジムカーナ場の「秩序と熱狂」
Order and Fervor: A Grassroots Gymkhana Track

道中で出会ったジムカーナ場。車好きの私にとって、唸るエンジン音やタイヤのスキール音は、言葉を超えたシンパシーを感じる瞬間でした。
タイでも車好きはたくさんいて、改造車も日本から輸入したものも含めていっぱい走っていますし、自作バイクのようなものに乗っている人もたくさんいて驚きです。凝り性が多そうな印象。
細部にこだわる彼らの気質は、工場の品質管理においても大きな武器になるはずです。

Along the way, I came upon a small gymkhana track. For someone who has always loved cars, the low growl of engines and the sharp cry of tires slipping against asphalt stirred something immediate and wordless.

In Thailand, too, the roads are alive with enthusiasts—modified cars, imported machines, even improvised, almost handmade motorcycles. There is a shared instinct among them: a meticulous attention to detail, a refusal to leave things as they are.

It is a temperament that, I suspect, translates seamlessly into the discipline of quality control. Precision, after all, begins as a kind of affection.

3. 湘南の五感：波音と「釣れない」釣り人
Shonan Through the Senses: Waves and an Unrewarding Fisherman

海岸に出ると、タイの海にはない、力強く響く波音が迎えてくれました。雪化粧の富士山を追いながら（写真）、波打ち際で年配のサーファーたちの勇姿を眺めます。
花水川を上ると、一人の釣り人。「何が釣れますか？」との問いに「何も釣れない」というつれない返事。しかし、橋の上から川を覗けば、そこには悠々と泳ぐ大きな魚たちが。「答えはすぐ近くにあるのに、見えていないだけかもしれない」。そんなビジネスの教訓のような光景でした。

At the coast, the sea announced itself not visually, but audibly. The waves arrived with a depth and force I had not encountered in Thailand—resonant, insistent, almost architectural in sound.

Beyond them, Mount Fuji stood in quiet contrast, its snow-capped form drawing my gaze again and again. Along the shoreline, older surfers moved with a calm assurance, meeting each wave without urgency.

Further along, tracing the course of the Hanamizu River, I came upon a lone fisherman.
“What can you catch here?” I asked.
“Nothing,” he replied, without hesitation.

Yet from the bridge above, the water told a different story. Large fish drifted below, unhurried and unmistakable.

The answer, it seemed, was already there—only unseen.
It felt, in that moment, less like contradiction and more like instruction.

4. 革靴の卒業式：波打ち際の決意
A Graduation Ceremony for Leather Shoes

「この散策は、長年履き古した相棒（革靴）の卒業式にしよう」。ジーンズの裾を濡らし、波にのまれながらも、私は波打ち際を歩き続けました。

波に洗われて、人影も足跡も消えた真っさらな砂浜。そこを歩き振り返ると、波打ち際に残された自分の足跡は、決してまっすぐではありませんでした。

効率や理屈だけでは割り切れない、泥臭く、試行錯誤を繰り返しながら進む今の自分の挑戦。その「不器用な軌跡」こそが、私が世界中で積み上げてきたキャリアそのものだと、砂浜が教えてくれた気がします。管理部門として世界を歩き抜いた靴への感謝と、過去の自分への決別を、一歩ずつ刻み込みました。

I decided, as I walked, that this journey would serve as a kind of graduation ceremony—for a pair of leather shoes that had accompanied me for years.

With the hems of my jeans darkened by seawater and the tide pressing insistently at my steps, I continued along the edge where land yields to the sea.

The sand, freshly washed by waves, held no memory—no footprints, no trace of those who had passed before. Yet as I moved forward and turned back, my own path appeared behind me. It was uneven, wavering, far from straight.

It reminded me of the work I now face—resistant to clean logic or efficient solutions, demanding persistence, repetition, and a willingness to proceed without certainty.

That imperfect line in the sand felt, unmistakably, like my own trajectory. Not refined, not linear, but built through movement and correction.
With each step, I marked both gratitude—for the shoes that had carried me across countries and roles—and a quiet separation from the person who had worn them.

5. 新しい一歩：同じ靴、新しい自分
The Same Shoes, A Different Self

駅ビルの靴屋で新調した、全く同じ形、同じサイズの新しい靴。湘南平の電波塔を見上げたとき、筋肉痛一つない強靭な足取りで、タイでの新しい挑戦へと踏み出す準備が整ったことを確信しました。ただ、一人ゼイゼイと息を切らしながら汗だらだらになっているのはわたしだけでした。

At a shop in the station building, I chose a new pair of shoes—identical in form and size to the old.

Standing later beneath the radio tower of Shonan-daira, I became aware of something unexpected: my body felt intact, even light. No lingering soreness, no resistance. Only readiness.

It was then I understood that I was prepared—fully—to take on what awaited me next in Thailand.

Though, in truth, I was the only one there, breath ragged, clothes damp with sweat.