I live in a town located in the northeast region, which is known as Tohoku, in Japan. This is the place in which has a severe winter season with much snow. Since the area has a harsh environment, there is a small number of residents and its population is expected to decline more rapidly. However, as a Japanese who was born in this harsh environment, I have a strong mentality to be patient for the winter to end.
These days, I can see the clear sky more often than several weeks ago when the piles of snow remained along the road. The temperature has been rising and this snow has been melt in a couple of these days. Whenever I go out for a walk, I usually take a look at the river close to my house. It seems the water level has been increasing and the water flows faster than usual. This proves that the water flowing on the river is used to be the snow on the mountain. All these things are signaling us to inform that spring is coming shortly.
There is a large fruit farm behind my house. It was completely covered with snow a month ago but it has all disappeared now. Instead, if I look outside from my room window, I can see the farmers cutting the branches of fruit trees. Due to the heavy snow, the fruit trees were damaged and some of them were toppled down, but the farmers are neatly cutting the damaged ones and preparing for the new season to come. Then, they burn the branches outside. This is the common scenery which tells us the starting of the spring in our town.
If I go out for a walk, I can smell the burning trees, which makes my emotion a bit nostalgic. This smell signals us the starting of spring. Also, this is something I am accustomed to but which I haven’t paid attention to up until today. However, I can now realize this distinctive characteristic after being left from my hometown for more than a decade.
