By Kokoro Still
The sound of geta—wooden sandals traditionally worn with yukata—
is never just sound.
It carries the weight of the foot,
the pause before the next step,
and the air that moves in between.
When I wore them again,
years after the first summer night,
my own steps brought back a quiet
that Kokoro had kept all along.
The First Summer Night
The first time I wore geta
was at a summer festival as a child.
The straps felt tight,
the wood too flat against my feet.
Each step landed with a sharp click,
as if the ground were answering back.
The rhythm was uneven—
pausing just enough
for the night air to slip between steps.
Lanterns swayed above the street,
casting soft circles of light on the path.
Somewhere beyond the stalls,
drums sounded,
their beat slow enough for the crowd to breathe with it.
Years Without the Sound
After that night,
years passed without the sound of wood on stone.
Festivals came and went,
but I wore other shoes.
The memory of that rhythm
rested somewhere quiet,
waiting without asking to return.
Wearing Them Again
One summer evening,
I wore geta again for the first time in years.
The straps still pressed between my toes,
but the wood felt lighter now.
The first step sounded sharper than I expected—
then softened as the night air settled in.
With each step,
I could feel both the present street
and the one from years ago
beneath the same foot.
The smell of grilled corn drifted from a nearby stall,
blending with the faint smoke of sparklers by the river.
The Steps That Return
On the way home from the festival,
the street was quieter.
My steps echoed just enough
to remind me they were mine—
the same rhythm of sound from long ago,
now carrying the weight of years.
And in that echo,
Kokoro passed quietly between
the past and the present,
holding both.
The geta is not only footwear.
It is a way of moving
that carries both the step and the years it has crossed.
It is here—
in the sound that returns,
and the quiet it leaves behind—
where the sound lingers,
and Kokoro is quietly there.
Featured image: The image was created by AI (ChatGPT)
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