The Osechi ads were scarier than the Obon ghost stories

It is now the season of Obon.

Speaking of summer, it's time for ghost stories.
It is the season for listening to scary stories and reading mysterious tales from the past.

…Or so I thought, but the other day I already saw an advertisement for "Osechi" (New Year's dishes).

No, wait a minute.
It's still Obon, isn't it??
We are just about to spend the summer here.

And yet, when I open my screen, ads like "Gorgeous Osechi to color the New Year" appear.
My favorite Sumikko Gurashi characters have also started taking Osechi orders.

That was much more chilling than any Obon ghost story.
Isn't the flow of time moving too fast?

I feel like I haven't even properly digested this year yet.
Wasn't it just recently that the year started?

And at times like this, I often wonder.
Could it be that the flow of time moves at different speeds for the mind and the body?

The calendar moves forward relentlessly.
The body also changes little by little to match it.

Getting tired more easily than last year.
Taking longer to recover than in the past.
Starting to feel my age in my skin and physique little by little.

The body is dutiful.
"Yes, I have properly aged by one year again this year."
It marks time with certainty, as if to say that.

However, the mind is not like that.
Even now that I'm approaching forty, I still wonder somewhere, "How does one become a proper adult?"

Even though I am already at an age that is definitely an adult.
I have experience working as a professional.
I have experienced many things.

Even so, the feeling that "I haven't really grown up yet" remains in my heart (laughs).
Am I still in my terrible twos?

Only my age keeps increasing steadily.
But I don't feel like my inner self has changed that much.
This is quite strange, isn't it?

While the body moves forward according to time, the mind is walking a little behind.
I even feel like that distance is widening year by year.

If I were to put it in terms of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, it feels like I'm being attacked by some Stand.

My appearance and physical strength change according to my age.
However, my mind is left behind.

Only the person themselves is left behind, thinking, "Wait, when did I become this age?"
It's a truly unpleasant Stand ability.

And what's troublesome is that I feel like I was saying the same thing last year and the year before.

Last year, I also said, "Time is passing too quickly."
I feel like I was saying, "Is it already this time of year?" the year before that too.

This means that my mind might truly not be keeping up with time.
Every year I am in the exact same place, surprised that "Time is fast!"

Perhaps it's not that my mind isn't growing, but that "my own time" and "calendar time" are fundamentally different things.

Age increases as a number.
The body also changes little by little.
But the "self" inside me does not suddenly become a different person from yesterday.

I become today's self while dragging yesterday's self along.
That is why just because I have reached my 40s, it doesn't mean my heart suddenly becomes a "person in their 40s."

The version of me from childhood, my twenties, and my thirties all seem to remain within me just as they were.

Thinking about it that way, the feeling that "I don't feel like I've grown up yet" might not be so strange after all.
…or so I tell myself (laughs).

And once again this year, before I knew it, it's Obon.
Right alongside it, reservations for Osechi have already begun.
The calendar leaves me behind and keeps racing ahead.

I chase after it, calling out, "Wait a second!"
I'll probably be saying the same thing next year.

And I'm sure I'll be surprised again when I see the Osechi ads, thinking, "It's that time already!?"
Honestly, the fact that time passes so quickly is more chilling than any ghost story (laughs).