Hello, I'm engineer Kawashima. This article is about a trip ... (laughs)

I went on a trip to Russia after a week off in early August.
I’ve been to St. Petersburg and Moscow as backpackers, but this is the first time I’ve stepped on a Russian land.

expansive cityscape with a sense of distance

The most impressive thing is perhaps the vast cityscape of St. Petersburg, where every building looks like a skyscraper lying sideways.
I took a picture of the city of St. Petersburg, which is just one side from Nevsky Boulevard.

You can see nearly 20 windows per floor in the apartment on your left, and people on the road feel as small as toy by contrasting it with buildings.

Because these huge buildings are perfectly lined up, there is a wide space between intersections and if you try to walk into the next street with a whim, then you can't come back without walking about 200 meters. The more you walk on the map, the less confident your sense of distance becomes in the way. While living in Japan where countless buildings huddle each other on narrow alleys, it seems that Raskornikov has taken the stereotype of "building stretches upward" (He often wondered how he could walk through this huge city...)

The following are Google Maps in the center of St. Petersburg and near Shinjuku station respectively:


I think you can realize that the density of roads is completely different.
During my stay in St. Petersburg, I was only able to walk around the center and the canals that appear in "Sin and Punishment," so if I could revisit it, I would like to see more suburban areas and alleyways next time.

park-like cemetery

Since the main purpose of this trip was to visit Russian literature, I visited several graves for writers: Dostoyevsky, Chekhov and Gogol.
Among them, Dostoyevsky’s grave, which is considered to be the highest peak of Russian literature along with Tolstoy, was replaced by someone who visited and wrapped in bright air like a park.

This photo was taken from a bench placed across the gravepost.
There are similar benches on various graves, so you can talk and take a break in front of the tombmark.

Tretyakov Museum of Art

it's easy to hide in the shadow of hermitage, which is one of the three major art museums Tretyakov Museum of Art in Moscow It was great too.
Mainly Russian art is in the collection, and you can experience a wide range of works from religious paintings to portraits, landscapes to genre paintings. (It seems that there are also many church icons and Soviet-era works in the collection; this time it was too late for much to be seen, so I'm sorry...)

When you look at vivid folk art from a hundred years ago that depicts the lives of people and the scenery of faith, it feels like you are witnessing again an image known only in stories or novels as if you were walking through a museum while in a museum.
Some works will be coming to Japan this fall. and i'm looking forward to seeing you again now:)