To live in a city by a river is something unique. A city on the coast has something well worn in the physique of man. Seafaring ships: trading, fishing, connecting the city to the greater world through history’s well confirmed paths of development. However let us not forget the city by the river. Some are legendary, London, Rome, Paris but others are lesser known but charming in their own right. A river is a single thoroughfare of connection to the maritime world making its importance that much more profound for such cities. But the modern version is something differentiated from the days of old as freeways, trains and thoroughfares connect these cities of the river to the outside world. The flowing body of water’s significance however still remains. 

     I was born and raised in a city called Sacramento in California. Where I am from we have two rivers, both the Sacramento and the American. I grew up with these rivers and their tributaries. As a matter of fact in my backyard we had a creek that eventually met up with one of our 2 rivers. I spent countless hours, maybe the majority of my childhood in this creek playing, catching crawdads, tadpoles, minnows and most importantly just being with nature. As I got older we would take boats out on the Sacramento river, something that was unique to our city’s location on the river and now reminds me distinctly of home. I am a river person, born and raised on a river town, and maybe I didn’t completely realize this until I came to where I am today, Isesaki, Japan. Like Sacramento Isesaki is also a city located by a running body of water, in this case the Tone river. I have spent many afternoons running by its banks or taking a bike ride. Its shores are lush with grasses, flowers, trees and are a wonderful contrast to the concrete and steel city just on the other side of the levy. In some sense, this to me is home, to see the cranes and finches, flying around the banks, old fishermen trying their hand at fishing, and of course the numerous insects that call the area their home.  Their is something here that the people of the seaside don’t get and probably never will. But this is me, I am like them a person who grew up by a river.