MONTH OF OCTOBER

Coming home from the doctor's office one day after picking up my medicine, I was crossing the bridge over the Tengan River, where I'd seen my friends: the common coot, heron, kingfisher, turtle, pigeon, sparrow hawk, dragonfly, damselfly, butterfly, inchworm, and of course, the carp.

I remembered when the nearby park up in mainland Japan got old, construction equipment came in and renovated the entire children's playground area, giving the whole park a new appearance. Now, similar surveyor's equipment, power shovels, and mounds of sand were assembled near the riverbank...I knew it too was going to be getting a facelift very soon.

Greenery and bits and pieces of wildlife, little by little, seem to be getting taken farther and farther away from us. Progress, I suppose, cannot be halted. But there is a part of me that cannot help but feel some melancholia. The JUNIE'S LIBRARY blog will dedicate the month of October to literature having to do with the living things I came into contact with as a result of the Castle Remains Park of Iwatsuki City, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.

At least when the Corona Virus seemed to paralyze human society, God sent us these little living things to help us keep going.

“BREATHING JEWELS” of IWATSUKI JOSHI KOEN

June 22, 2020

(Apologies for the wordiness or grammar mistakes of the following; I didn’t really check it; just kinda threw out my thoughts.)

What can I say—the stringent tightening of regulations due to COVID-19 has been letting up, and it feels like people are beginning to breathe easier. But I’ve gotta say hats off to the staff at the Iwatsuki Castle Remains Park nearby.

When I heard a lot of other parks were closing, families with little ones were coming here for walks to get rid of some of their pent-up energy.

The park people don’t seem to have the city financial backing to give as much support as they want to the animals they care for so well. But families bringing toddlers were showing them carp. A little later, the turtles were showing up, and the kids—especially the boys—were getting excited about seeing them. Maybe it’s because, with the virus’ uncertainty about life, it felt good to see living things moving, going on with life. The herons were making nests up in the trees or catching fish in the pond. The crows, pigeons, and starlings, were flying where they were supposed to be. Some youths drew pictures of animals at the park to take back to school and wrote short memos about them. An adult was seen showing youths a snakeskin left behind by a reptilian friend. There were parents, grandparents, relatives, delighted in or taking pictures of natural wildlife to show others at home. There were insects, frogs, flora, waterfowl to see…none of it threatened by COVID-19!

Life and hope. The custodians of this park had quietly led the community through the past few “Pandemic” weeks, providing them with the little moving jewels which Iwatsuki Joshi Koen will, hopefully, become well-known for.