Power of a piece of flower

I have got a job to teach at a private girls high school from September as a part-time teacher. Today I went to the school to have a meeting with my future colleagues to discuss the classes starting from fall.

On the way back from the school to the nearest station, I found something brightly yellow on the ground, which was kind of a bush just next to the sidewalk. Since it has been raining for a couple of days consecutively, everything around seemed dim and grey, but the yellow was so vivid and outstanding in the rain. I soon realized that it was a piece of sunflower but I wondered why it was there without becoming darkish. But the yellow color was too strong for me to miss something important behind it. But just after I passed the flower, I felt something, and looked back. Then I found that there was a dead cat beneath the flower.

She (or maybe he) was so wet and her color was brown, and therefore she was hidden with the color of the ground. Usually, I felt so sad and even scared to find or see dead animals, and try not to see them as much as I can. However, I felt different feeling this time. Her face looked very peaceful and even cute and I did not feel scared. Even the scene made my heart warm. If I had just found the cat without the flower, I would have felt the same as usual. Iwould have run away from it. Only one piece of flower changed the sad or scary situation into a peaceful one.

From the scene, there are a lot of stories I could imagine. The cat might have been killed by a car on the street, someone felt sorry for her and s/he may have moved the cat to the sidewalk. Someone may have felt guilty if s/he was the driver. Someone may have been just a passer-by and felt sorry for her. Or, the cat may have just died the because of some kind of illness or aging. But I am sure that someone put the flower on the cat for her. The vivid yellow color of the flower obviously showed someone's prayer for the cat.

I just passed by the place, but the scene is still in my mind lively. I will pray for the cat before going to bed today.

veggies

Today, I found a nice place to do grocery shopping near our place. Since the ward district I live in has the largest areas of vegetable fields in the city, I knew that they offer a lot of local food. But I had not found a place offering the local fresh ones by the farmers directly till today.

There is a supermarket near the station but I seldom buy veggies there because they are too expensive to buy regularly. Usually I go to the different supermarket which is located a bit farther but they sell stuffs cheaper.

I just stopped by the ward office to find some social activity for volunteering after going to the dentist. I happened to find the colorful spot at the corner there. I was so happy to find the place that I bought a lot today: bitter melons, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, corns and pears. They cost just 1,000 yen (approximately $10) in total. If I bought them at the supermarket, they would have been almost double, I guess.

Actually, these days vegetables are not so expensive compared to those in previous days but I cannot help comparing them with in the US. The price is the same but the amount is much less in Japan. In addition, we have to buy them almost every other day because they easily get decayed. I suppose they are fresh but they are not given less chemicals, which is good for us.

Today, I cooked summer curry with a lot of corns for dinner:)

This is the fireworks in my city. There were so many people around the bay area. Since I really love to see them especially in summer, I cannot miss the event. This is kind of one of the typical Japanese culture, I guess.