==JAPAN: KM== [Hobbies]

It is sometimes reported that aquatic mammals like dolphins and whales swim into shallow water, are trapped there, and grow weaker and weaker until they die. The reason for the phenomenon in not clear yet. Some have said that it's because of ancient memories hidden in the depth of their brains, that's to say, the memory of the era when their ancestors lived on land. Some stimuli recall the old memory and they happen to realize that they are swimming in the bottomless sea. Suddenly they're seized with great fear, which makes them run for land. I don't know how true the theory is, it excites my interest.
At one point in history, we humans who are also mammals, going back in time, have common ancestry with dolphins. In fact, Jacques Mayol who models a real-life hero in the movie "Grand Blue", volunteered himself as a subject to test this theory and he demonstrated that mankind has the same ability to make blood shift from the legs or the arms to the lungs in deep water as dolphins do. If you can use this ability, you'll be able to stay underwater, more than 100 metres deep for a while. It is said that an Indian yogi, a person proficient in yoga, could stay under water for 20 minutes. Can we altogether say it is nonsense? If everyone has such an ability or an old memory from "embryo days" in the subconscious brain (and actually it is often said so), I don't think it impossible for some stimulus to recall these hidden instincts. For example, getting in the water and diving may be second nature to us, because as an unborn baby, we did it in the womb. Perhaps the sea is dear to all living things, not just to man. Regardless of the reasons, man's urge to dive and return to the ocean's depths is a very real desire.
Unfortunately, most of us aren't yogis or Jacques Mayol, not to mention the fact that we don't have gills or fins on our bodies. But don't give up. There are several handy ways to dive. The equipment you use depends on your method. Skin diving needs nothing, not even a swimsuit if you don't like one. They may not be completely necessary, but if you have a mask, and snorkel and fins, you'll have a happiertime in the glittering field stretching all around you. Furthermore, if you buy or rent an air tank and an air pressure regulator, you can enjoy scuba diving. SCUBA, an acronym for Self-Contained, Underwater-Breathing Apparatus, started in the 50's and was developed more in the 60's. I heard that the U.S. Navy was instrumental in developing scuba. As the equipment improves year by year, more and more people come to enjoy it regardless of age. If you keep the rules and don't mind spending money lavishly for "air", another world will be waiting for you.
It was five years ago that I got my scuba license on a mere whim in the Red Sea of Egypt when I was wandering aimlessly about the Mediterranean region. It's the first time I had known this other world, where we are relieved of gravity and can "fly" about between rocks, up and down coral walls as Superman does. You must have dreamed in your childhood that you could fly freely. Even now I dream so, watching astronauts in the Space Shuttle. Underwater in a three-dimensional "Blue World", we can go anywhere we want. Of course, lots of tropical fish will be "flying" with you. The Red Sea is one of the best diving spots, and drifting with Napoleon fish, I could be a dolphin and go upstream toward some ancient instincts and feel my earliest memories crossing.
I was floating in waters in the womb. Can you imagine how I enjoyed my sweet life there, eating and sleeping and talking with mom? "Hi! Mom" "Hi! Baby". Surely, it may have been a paradise, however, that happy time passed quickly. Through lazy life, my body was getting fatter and fatter to the extent that I came to feel cramped in the space. To make matters worse, my mom began to regard me as a nuisance. "Hi! Mom" "Uuuuups------." It deeply impressed me that love is precarious. One day after about nine months had passed, I had to go out into another world. My mind was made up for me, and that is why I came outside, crying loudly with sadness and anxiety. This severe world begins this way and we can never go back, never again.
Once again I found myself having to enter the world because the buzzer was telling me that the air tank was empty, so I went up to the boat. The beautiful ocean surrounded by desert and blue sky was there. Feeling comfortably satisfied and listless, I had to accept the fact that it was the end of my travel.
In just hours, I would be above the clouds, on my way back to Japan, on my way back to dry land.

"Getting It Together"

In the class, Mr. Mann introduced an essay entitled "Paraglider" to us. I've never flown in the sky, but I have done so in the water, so I chose "diving" as a topic. To be honest, even after that, I had been waiting for a better topic to inspire me, but it didn't come and at last I decided to adopt this one. First I wrote an explanatory essay, but it was boring, so I added in an air of fantasy. The title is borrowed from a great work of Marcel Proust, the great French author. In English this is usually translated as "In Search of Lost Time". I thought this title was an apt remark about the theme of my essay, so I adopted it.
This essay may lack polish, however, I'm satisfied with it as my first work. The honor would be mine, if you would be able to feel the infinite ability of mankind and the evanescence of love.