Getting Lost Can Be Fun!

I like getting lost when I ride a bicycle or walk. I used to get lost on purpose and find new streets around my neighborhood. One day, I discovered a new way to go to the Asakawa River. Another day I came across a modern white house with a beautiful, well-kept garden in front of the house.

Most of the time, I preferred to ride a bicycle alone. In that case, I could just go wherever I felt

like, and I could turn into a new alley freely.

Without thinking, just leave it to the wind.

I also spent some time practicing clapping my hands or riding with no hands during the bike ride.

The jackpot for me was finding either a milk shop or liquor shop. No, no, no, I don’t think you understand why a little girl got so excited about liquor shops! Not excited since I like sake. I got excited because we collected paper lids of milk bottles to play something like pog, and lids of sake bottles to play spinning top. And of course, it was very popular to trade rare lids.

Those were my Sunday morning adventures when I was 6.

Getting a little bit older, I still enjoyed a bicycle adventure. Sometimes my friend joined me, and sometimes my little sister followed me.

One spring day - a sweet aroma of flowers wafted through a beautiful day. It happened to be Buddha's birthday. I remember that day vividly. My friend and I were coming near to the rotary of the train station. We saw people were gathering around the little Buddha statue standing in the middle of a small basin that contained sweet tea with floating flowers.　They let us pour sweet tea onto the statue of the Buddha and gave us the sweet tea to drink. Since that day, I never forget that April 8th is the Buddha’s birthday, called Hana-Matsuri, which means Flower Festival, with the taste of the sweet tea which was not so tasty to me.

I still like getting lost even now. In fact, Providence is the perfect place to do it.

There are a lot of great old houses. I am fascinated to look at the plates on the walls to imagine who lived there 160 years ago. When I spotted the Little Free Library, I felt lucky and I couldn't help but look into it!

There is an unusually shaped tree almost bending over the sidewalk making an arch tunnel like kids are making “London Bridge is Falling Down”. It’s been on my radar for quite some time. I just found out that it happened to be a friend’s house!

Getting lost gives me not only new discoveries or fantasies, but also brings back random moments of old memories. It stimulates the five senses; the smell of the firewood from the chimney, a spooky feeling of a warm breeze, biting cold air or sounds of birds.

Getting lost is so much fun!

~

Reiko - Japan