About summer vacation
Are you all doing well?
Utsushiki will be on summer vacation for the entire month of August.
The chorus of cicadas singing with all their might and the scorching heat.
Every year is the same, yet somehow different.
When I was a university student, when I had a little time off from working several part-time jobs, I would choose a flower shop or plant-related place I wanted to go to from a list and go on a trip somewhere far away.
Usually, people travel by night bus or train, which costs very little money.
The long layovers when traveling to remote places are also a great time to read a book that you usually put off.
I loved every bit of that time.
Whenever I arrived at a place, I was always given a bouquet of flowers.
Even though I couldn't take them home, I decided to give them to someone I met by chance and became friends with, and I learned that plants I had seen before can take on a completely different existence when interacted with different people and in different spaces.
With tired bodies and excited hearts, I hurried home and resume my daily routine.
It may seem the same as before, but it adds another thin layer of learning.
Then the internet quickly became popular,
It's now possible to see it without having to actually go there.
Still, nothing beats what you get from actually being there.
The smell, the texture, and the invisible air that flows there.
When I'm at Utsushiki, I sometimes receive flowers delivered through people I have connections with.
The plants entrusted to us have traveled a long way to arrive at this place, carrying the thoughts of those who prepared them.
I always feel a sense of joy as I open the carefully protected package and think, "Welcome!"
A flower shop far away that I was curious about.
A bouquet of flowers that was grown and picked by her own hands.
When the box is opened, it's like a magic trick, a moment that could only happen with the help of the person who made it.
Just as we don't eat or wear the same thing every day,
It's also fun to change your florist from time to time, rather than just using your usual one.
So, what kind of day should we have today?
Saori Konishi
