culture or nature?

it rained, all in all, until this morning. i’d enjoyed having a daily walk in the park adjacent to the premise of my flat pretending there was no rainy season this year until today. but, as i certainly noticed that some flowers in the park almost blighted, i knew they needed that. so, i felt happy about the rain for them, even though i usually hate rain.
* i was thinking about my present environment when i was walking in my park yesterday: if i had to choose between culture and nature, which would it be? i didn’t think i’d bear to live a life without cultural inspirations. until i moved to this suburb in osaka, i had an urban life (mostly in london) with galleries, museums, cinemas, opera houses, concerts, bohemian cafés and glamorous restaurants, street markets and multi-ethnicity of people from all over the world. now, there are no such things; culture-wise, people are less adventurous here.

*

however, i have my park -- a huge, by japanese standards, and beautiful park where a dazzling variety of fauna and flora live. it amuses me throughout the year. i am not saying i no longer need cultures, though. in fact, i am dying to have a local art centre like camden arts centre or whitechapel gallery in town. but, there are very few who fancy a city-run contemporary art gallery to use our tax, i suppose. so, instead, i have a prefectural-owned park that is situated so close to me. how lucky i am?
*
in retrospect, i seem i always tended and tried to live near a park in my life. while living in london, i could get both: culture and nature. london parks are gorgeous; actually living near one of them was a dream-come-true experience. but when i lived in new cross (a hip town now? according to the new york times) because of goldsmiths college where i was then studying art, i couldn’t help feeling restless, owing to the environment that there were no parks nearby. greenwich park and blackhearth are not an easy walking distance from new cross, you know.

*

i wanted a green retreat as much as i wanted a daily debate on art back then. now that i have no choice, i am happily live up to only one of my ideals. in my park, i have my favourite spots where green looks magical. and, i encounter little creatures like a kingfisher in a secluded spot, while i am relieved to see honeybees hovering over the lavenders, since i know their recent mysterious disappearing has become a big issue not only in the usa and uk but in japan as well. small coppers (butterfly) and carpenter bees are also busy working at the moment.

*
the purple of the stream-like lavender fields gets deeper and deeper day by day. what a joy – the reason why i feel now this way probably came from my experience of recovering from serious illness. i was hospitalized two years ago today. since i got back home, i don’t take anything for granted anymore. meanwhile, i greatly regret that i treated my father as if he would be around forever. he did not, quite the contrary, he died much earlier than average japanese guys. while he was alive, we never had a walk together in the park he too loved. yes, it’s father’s day, today. treat your daddy good. happy father’s day, everyone!