boom

the streets are foolish with azaleas, thousands of them. spindly green bushes i've never even noticed have all at once detonated into flirty pink and white blooms. i thought they were odorless, but they emit the faintest of fragrances; it's more a color than a smell. thin pink washes from the overdyed petals into the air, making invisible pink clouds that dissolve in the breeze.


today i felt like even riding my bike would be moving too fast. it was 80 degrees (!) and i had some errands, so i set out in flip flops. japan hasn't hit humidity defcon 1 yet, so it still feels nice to bake in the sun. i love seeing what's blooming every few weeks in the tiny gardens in front of people's houses and shops. today it smelled liked easter: new grass and spring flowers, though it looked like summer already. i saw jasmine and a tiny orange poppy the size of my fingertip, purple bell-shaped flowers, daisies.



with sun soaking my skin and nowhere to be, color and green finally filling in the grey lines of streets, i felt like everything was wonderful, even chain link fences, even the silky, frayed flags advertising hybrid cars and beef rice lunches, even leonardo dicaprio's face advertising a pile of hot bridgestone tires.