みどりの日, or Greenery Day as it is called in English, is a holiday during the Japanese holiday week called Golden Week. GW has four public holidays during a period of a week, and Greenery Day is celebrated on May 4th, although I like to think of the day as the literal translation instead – Green Day. Ever since we moved to Fukuoka, I have been fascinated by spring. Nature here in is so green, we are surrounded by thick greenery and the nearby mountains are all covered in green forest. The color fest of autumn is in winter replaced by somewhat homogeneously colored mountainsides, but when spring and summer arrives, they suddenly come to life again.
I never really thought of all the different shades of green when I was living in Sweden. I guess living in a flat landscape surrounded by pine trees gives another respective than being met by green mountains when you look outside. Also, I feel the power of growth in nature is so much stronger here thanks to the warm and humid climate, sometimes it really feels like we live in a jungle. While in Sweden I would freely roam the forests, here I stick to the walking paths. I do not think I could make it outside the trails here, not without some kind of clearing tools.
Going to and from the kindergarten bus in the mornings and afternoons, I get to experience the changing beauty of nature in all kinds of weather and the past week it was just the greenery that captured my attention. I was looking at all the different green colors, admiring how they shifted in saturation as the weather changed. When I moved to Japan, orange was my favorite color. But now, if I had to choose between a fade sunset orange and a saturated foggy dark green tone, I am not sure I could.
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