People in Kyushu love to tease Tokyo—“all they know is work and money.”
Tokyo sticks out its pinky, calling Kyushu too slow, too simple, too “uncultured.”
I sit between these two narratives every day, knowing both are true and untrue at once.
Watching these kids in Oita playing at a campsite, I wondered: would you trade straight-A ambition for this?
For sunlight, grass, a missed catch, a bruised knee?
Do we really need to trade one for the other?

I do have a complain as a parent.
On Google Maps, parks in Tokyo appear green on the phone.
But when I get there, it’s often sand, and an old man is occupying the slide.
Whereas in Kyushu, the park will look unremarkable on the map, but full of space and kids.