noasobi essey scene09“ Father and Mosquito Sticks ”
My father greatly loved to go fishing.
He took me along with him on his fishing jaunts wherever he went,
whether it was the sea, a river, or a lake.
And I always carried mosquito sticks in my backpack.
He seemed to believe that brown bears would not approach us with the help of mosquito sticks.
Before we set out on a fishing trip, he would always check to make certain that I had some of them.
In his later years, I brought up the subject.
And he just grinned and said it was because he knew that I often got insect bites and they would swell up, looking painfully red.
And that was why he decided that we should always take along mosquito sticks when we went fishing.
And he kept on smiling as he went on to explain that he told me that brown bears might appear so that I wouldn't wander off somewhere.
Published "Snow Peak Outdoor Lifestyle Catalog" in 2008.
This series reprints the articles published in the Snow Peak Outdoor Lifestyle Catalog since 2004.