==JAPAN: KM== [Childhood]

When I was young, before I entered junior high school, many kinds of small living creatures such as insects and fish were my playmates. Of course I liked man-made pastimes such as playing baseball, games, reading books, and watching TV, too, but catching small living things and observing them were more exciting and special. I have a scar on my forehead to prove it.
When I was 5 years old, a very big worm was crawling in a concrete drainage ditch beside the road in front of my house. I had never seen such a giant grotesque moving object until then, so crouching beside the ditch, I watched the worm enthusiastically for a long time. It was during that time that a boy playing tag and running away from his friend came near me, and then, changing his course suddenly, he bumped my back. I fell down, hit my forehead on the edge of the ditch, cut it, and bled. The blood from my forehead dripped down on the worm and changed its color to red. I was curious about its dramatic change, so moving together with the miserable worm, I let my blood drip down on it and observed it. While I watched it, because its strange moving and the changing color were very curious to me, I forgot to feel pain, but on the way to a hospital I no longer had my interesting object, the worm, so I suddenly began to feel pain in my forehead and cried. In the end, I had to have stitches, and that is how I got my scar.
During my summer holidays as an elementary school kid, I had many chances to meet small living creatures in the woods. Out of the many kinds, beetles were the most precious kind of insect for young boys, but to get them, there were some difficulties. Firstly, usually beetles come to trees to get sap in the very early morning, so I had to wake up before 4 a.m. P Secondly, there was a graveyard on the way to the woods. One day as I was going by the graveyard, I noticed a strange old guy whom I had sometimes seen in our town. He was digging the ground, so I thought he would dig up a body and try to eat it! I was frightened but also curious, so I stopped and asked him, "Hey! Old man! Are you eating the body?" He got very angry and rushed at me, so I was surprised and escaped from him at a dash. From then on, I was more afraid than ever of the graveyard. Thirdly, I saw snakes at many places and needed to avoid them. Some were on the road and others were under the trees from which many beetles were getting sap, but if we moved slowly, the snakes didn't attack and went away. Fourthly, sometimes I fell down from a tree. Once the branch of a dead dry tree even stabbed my thigh. However, when $I finally overcame all of those difficulties and got my prize, I was so happy. How I enjoyed giving them a piece of watermelon or sugar water in cotton and watching them.
Other interesting places were rice fields, ponds, and rivers. To get a crayfish in a rice field, I looked for a small hole, lifted out mud around the hole with both hands, and caught the discovered creature. And to get quickly moving frogs, I often "swam" the rice field. I once buried a frog I caught in a small can near my house and dug it out a half year later. To my surprise, only its bones remained with a perfect frog shape. Using crayfish and frogs for bait, I fished in rivers and ponds. Sometimes I accidentally slipped into the water and one time I fell into a cesspool. Even though it was stinky and filled with human waste, I couldn't help playing there, because I was fascinated with some small eels.
Small living creatures as a part of nature were very dear to me, satisfied my curiosity, and catching them gave me chances to overcome difficulties bravely and think about their transient life. However, now that I am older, I feel they are not such a big part of my life, because, generally speaking, man-made things are more physically comfortable and to earn money or achieve my social ambitions, I have chosen specialized work and spend very busy time on it. Of course, working hard for my own aim is necessary, so I will not regret my mortal life. However, to understand limited life more deeply, I instinctively hope to keep close contact with nature because it contains not only us but also many things in harmony from birth to death and gives us hints to understand our fate. When I was a child, unconsciously I was sensitive to the system of nature, but now, I am not and have almost forgotten it, so by touching and knowing it again, I hope to realize my fate and the meaning of my life. I will then be satisfied with my present life and will not be as afraid of its limits and, ultimately, death.

Comment After reading "Small Living Creatures", I remembered I loved catching insects, too, when I was a kid. However, when I tried to catch insects, went to the school garden. It is a reason that I was born at the Keihin Industrial area in Tokyo where roads and ground were covered with concrete and air pollution was heavy.
In those days, perhaps I thought insects were a kind of toys, so I didn't notice Nature Providence by getting them. At first when I learned science at high school, I had interest in Nature Providence. Therefore, I'm envious of his many experiences and have respect for his learning various things from nature.

Mamoru Nagasawa