A snack among the flowers on the hillside Take in the poppy-covered hill on an early June morning

My friend and I headed to Tenkū no Poppy on an early-summer morning. I chose a pale pink knit dress; even choosing what to wear felt like part of the fun. We parked and walked to the venue. When the slope came into view, poppies stretched from right at my feet all the way to the hilltop.

I’d pictured a flat flower bed, so the whole slope in bloom was a new sight for me. As my eyes followed the flowers up the slope, I spotted a big tree on the hilltop. Up close, I could make out each individual flower; farther away, they covered the slope. That shift in scale fascinated me. Even while my friend and I were talking, my eyes kept drifting back toward the top.

I held the paper packet of miso potatoes in both hands. One bite from the top potato on the skewer brought out the sweet-and-savory miso and potato flavors. “I love looking at flowers and I love snacks, so enjoying both is keeping me a little busy,” I told my friend, and she laughed. I took another bite, then decided to slow down and really look at the hill.

The slender flower stems swayed in the breeze. One stem moved only a little on its own, but across the hillside the flowers turned this way and that. A strand of hair brushed my shoulder, so I tucked it behind my ear and looked up at the tree again. With the open sky overhead, I could take my time savoring the sweetness of miso still on my tongue.

After wrapping up the skewer, my friend and I walked a little farther around the venue. From a different spot, the tree I’d just been looking at seemed to shift position, and I stopped again. On the way back, we talked less about how many flowers there were and more about how far that hillside seemed to stretch. That morning, I saw the full shape of the hill for myself, beyond what a flat photo could capture.