The Other Me in the Mountains

There’s a version of me who was born and raised in the mountains just outside Tokyo. I’ve never met him, but I think about him whenever I go there.I went for a run there the other day, for the first time in two years. The body felt every bit of that long absence, but my mind was busy with him—the "other me" who knows these trails by heart. The one who sees people from the city, like me, as just temporary visitors.It’s a strange thought, but a useful one. It feels like a kind of mental stretch, a way to remember that the life I lead in Tokyo is just one of many possibilities