A slope has two faces. Walk from one direction, and it is uphill. Walk from the other, and it is downhill. It is the very same road, yet it can feel completely different depending on where we stand and which way we are going. Life can be like that too. Something difficult for us may look easy to someone else. And a person we envy may be climbing a hill that we simply cannot see from where we stand. One viewpoint is rarely enough to understand the whole road. There is something else about climbing a hill. While we are in the middle of it, it can be difficult to notice our own progress. Another stretch of uphill road is always waiting ahead. So we look at our feet. One step. Then another. And we think only of how far there is still to go. But if we stop occasionally and turn around, the landscape may surprise us. A rooftop that was once beside us is now far below. We can see farther than we could before. All those steps that seemed so small have quietly become height. A slope brings difficulties that a level road does not. But it can also reveal views that a level road could never show us. The grandmother does not climb the hill for the girl. She simply walks beside her, sometimes resting a gentle hand on her shoulder. And when the girl reaches a new height with her own feet, they look at the view together. 阪 is a kanji of sloping ground. Sometimes the road rises. Sometimes it descends. Sometimes our steps feel light, and sometimes they become heavy. Yet the road continues through all of it. Perhaps what we should remember while struggling uphill is this: because we have already climbed this far, there is a view behind us that could only be seen from where we now stand.

At sunset, a little girl and her grandmother stopped halfway along a long hillside road. Old wooden houses stretched down the slope, and beyond them lay the town and the water in the distance. “We’ve come quite a long way up,” Grandmother said. The girl turned around. The teahouse they had passed and the little bridge were now far below. “Did we really climb this high?” “You didn’t notice while you were walking, did you?” The girl shook her head. The climb had not always been easy. Her legs had grown tired, and several times she had asked, “Are we there yet?” But now, beyond the long slope, the entire town was glowing in the evening light. Grandmother gently rested a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Slopes are interesting things.” “Why?” “While we’re climbing, we tend to look only at our feet. But when we stop and look back, we can see how far we’ve come.” The girl quietly gazed across the town. Soon, someone walking downhill passed them. For that person, the road was a descent. For the girl and her grandmother, it was the hill they had just climbed. “It’s the same road, but it can be both uphill and downhill.” “That’s right. It changes depending on which way you are going.” The sun was now close to the mountains. The girl looked up the slope once more. The road continued. “Shall we go a little farther?” This time, it was the girl who asked. And together, they began walking slowly up the hill again, beneath the warm light of the setting sun.

Collecting this kanji brings these jukugo closer ✨