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Short short with English summary
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

領土・紛争
教室・劇場・乗物・待合室・・・座席というものは面白いもので、そこに座を占めるまでは、何の特別な関心もない、ただの椅子・場所なのだが、一度そこを自分の席と定めると、その瞬間から、自分の場所・領分・陣地として、固執し占有したい気持ちが強くなるものだ。獣なら、排泄物でマーキングをしたくなる感情というべきか。
私は、比較的によく外国旅行をする。　ヨーロッパ諸国は、どこの空港まででも、成田からは、１０時間以上は飛行機に乗りっぱなしだ。　そこで、私の座席選びの第一条件は、通路側ということになる。　チョット席を離れたい時に、気兼ねなく立てるからだ。　多分、よほどの鍛錬・訓練をしていない限り、１２時間の飛行中、だれも、一度は席を立ち・・・・。そこで、気ままに動けることは、ストレスを大いに和らげてくれる。
飛行中の住環境を決定的に左右する要素の一番目は、隣にどんな人が座るかだ。　最も良い隣人は、空席。　この秋の旅行の帰路、モスクワ―成田間では、隣席は空席。
機内の通路は、座席を窓側２席・中央４席・窓側２席と分けている。　そこで、通路の両側に座席が２席づつあり、中央座席は実は右側２席、左側２席と分かれ、座席は連なっていてもその間には境界線が引かれていると言える。　ドリンク・食事といった、機内サービスも、通路の両側２席づつというわけ。
隣りは、空席とは運が良い、テーブルに小物も置けるしと、喜んでいたのだが、中央部座席の通路側の私の席には、空席一つの向う側にも当然、もう２席ある。　そこに座を占めるべく、過剰気味の大荷物を持って来る中年ご夫婦の行動パターンを観察し、会話・片言隻句を聴き、私の快適な環境に雲が掛かり、警鐘が鳴った。　彼らが荷物を納め、ドンと腰を据えて、私の心配が的中。　私の空席は彼らの小物で占められ、引き出されたテーブルには、収まりの悪い機内食の殻の山。　そこに、私も機内食の殻を・・・・と、ミニ国際領土紛争となった。
機内空席一つですら、こじれると不愉快な争いになる。莫大な地下資源・海中資源の利権争いが掛かった、本物の領土紛争が絶えず、短絡的に武力・実力行使に走ろうとするのは、無理もないのか。やはり、空席としておくのが一番の解決かも。
Territory and dispute
In a classroom, in a theater, in a car or in a waiting room, we daily take a seat.   I think taking a seat evokes very particular sense in me.   A chair, a seat or a bench, they are just furniture, just objects.   I don’t have any personal interest until I sit in it.   But as soon as I sit in them, I want to occupy, to defend and to guard the space against intruders.   Animals would do marking with their own excretion. Perhaps my feeling has the same root.
I take airplane rather often.   To the major airports in Europe it takes 10 to 13 hours from Narita, non stop.   Therefore I always require an aisle seat so that I could stand and leave my seat anytime when I need.   I guess all of us in an airplane non stop for 12 hours would leave our seats once or even more times. Unless he or she has been trained and exercised hard to keep sitting still for 12 hours.   I think it is unhealthy.   Being guaranteed to leave my seat anytime I want, lessens my stress in a plane great deal.
For me the environmental quality in the airplane is definitively influenced by the passenger sitting beside me.   And the best neighbor is an empty seat.   This autumn, from Moscow to Narita, my neighbor was an empty seat.   Good luck.
The seats in an airplane are arranged as:   the window sides lined two seats each and the central area four seats lines.   Two aisles through the cabins are for the passengers and for the service attendants;   one aisle serves two window columns and two central columns.   So the central area seat group is in reality divided into two blocks after its service aisle system.   We can consider there is an invisible but strict border in the middle of the central seats’ group.
I was happy expecting to enjoy long but undisturbed calm journey from Moscow to Narita.   To use the seat and table of my next empty seat is very convenient.   But when I observed an approaching middle aged couple carrying obviously over the limit hand baggage, I heard an alarm.   Their manner, conduct and conversations proved the alarm was not false.   They were my neighbors over my empty neighbor.   Actually nobody told me the empty seat belonged to me but…     My empty seat became a mountain of their baggage and its table was for their service. At the meal time, the plastic boxes and paper napkins made an untidy and unsteady junk heap on the table.   So I also put there my in-flight meal boxes and plastic mugs.     A mini international territorial dispute broke out.
An empty seat in an airplane could trigger an unpleasant dispute.    In our world, there are so many greedy nations and enterprises seeking for the natural resources.     The international territorial disputes or wars are perhaps inevitable. The best solution could be to keep the sensitive territories as the empty lands.
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