a memory of my high school days

It was a Saturday.
A sunny Saturday.


蘇萊浦口 (Sorae port)


I searched the Internet for some old photos of Sorae port in Incheon, South Korea.
There were a few.. only a few.

I just wanted to reminisce of some memories of my high school days.
Particularly the day when I went on the picnic of my art club in school to Sorae port.
That was a Saturday.
A sunny Saturday.

That morning, I drew a few sketches of the mud inlet and the railway.
And I walked around the port.

There were not many people.
They were working on their ships.

One small train was passing the narrow gauge railway bridge.
It was Spring, and I could feel a warm breeze blowing across the sea water.

I don't remember what I drew that morning in detail although I kept the sketch book for quite many years after graduation.


On my way back home that early afternoon, I sat on the rear seat in a bus.
The bus was silent because the stop at the port was the end stop of the bus route.
I felt sleepy in the sunshine that was coming behind my back neck through the rear glass window.

After a while, I could feel some chat sound of girl students in the bus.
They were all going back home after their school finished at noon.
I felt still sleepy..
It was such a dreamy and peaceful moment in my first year high school days.


...

Afterwards, I went to Sorae port at least once every year.
The bus route remained the same, so I had only to take the same bus and travel to the end stop.

I don't know exactly until which year I kept such an annual event for my soul..
but it was before the port completely changed.

Now there are few traces of its earlier landscape.
However, still Sorae port is one of the most ceremonial places for my life.

Sorae inlet in the 1980s (From the Internet)

Sorae station in the early 1990s (From the Internet)