Hidemi's Rambling No.272

A vast maneuver site of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces is situated near the apartment I currently live in. Although there are houses and apartments densely around it, they often exercise in firing artillery and parachuting, and disturb us with thunderous noise. Since I usually sleep in the daytime, coping with their noise is particularly difficult. That’s surely one of the reasons I’ve decided to move out. Yesterday, I woke up with the loud noise of a helicopter. I thought it was a usual parachute exercise, but it sounded slightly different. It came and went around busily. Then, I remembered the news that North Korea bombarded South Korea the day before. I imagined the Japanese Self-Defense Forces might be prepared for the contingency. If war broke out there, Japan would be too close geographically. As North Korea’s weapons are out of date, their missile might mistakenly hit here instead of South Korea. But when I took the thought calmly, I realized that there seemed to be more chance of a Japanese helicopter crashing onto the residential area than that of a North Korea’s missile. In either case, I had better speed up packing…