Closing the circle

This has been my second time living in Japan. The first time, all I did was work and drink. I didn't explore. I didn't integrate myself into the culture. I didn't even really speak the language.
So when I came back three years ago, I wanted to do things differently. And I have. I have really gotten in touch with what it means to live a 'Japanese' life - some would say more so than many natives!
Second time round I wandered off, tried new things, pushed away some of the boundaries a foreigner can feel living in a strange land.
In doing so, I have come to see Japan with new eyes. Especially, I have found Tokyo to be a greener and more beautiful city than anyone gives it credit for.
Granted, if you stay at the train stations, around which everything is centred, you could easily imagine it's just a city of cement boxes. But five or ten minutes away from any major station, you will usually find an oasis of natural calm, of minus ions, of understated elegance.
The picture above is of Shinjuku gyoen. It's a five minute walk from the busiest train station in Japan, if not the world. But you wouldn't think to look at it, would you?
Japanese people study the changing of the seasons carefully. The differing weather conditions bring new blossoms.
Here in early May it's the turn of the ツツジ (tsutsuji - azalea). Look carefully at the picture and you might also see the ハス(hasu - lotus) sitting in the pond. The rainy season will come and wash the azalea petals away, but that water will spur the lotus flower to open and it will be their turn to shine. And so it goes on. It's all a great circle of death and rebirth.
And speaking of circles, I really feel like I have been closing up the circle of my time here lately. With only 6 weeks to go before I leave, I have been trying to do things I won't have a chance to do once I get back to Europe.
Yesterday, instead of my usual course, I took a jog through the rice paddies and bamboo forests in the valley not far from my house. You can't get much more Asian than that.
My little bro will remember this place well. He took some happy walks there on his first visit to me. The place has a real significance for me too: it was a place my great friends from Australia took me to walk and shoot the breeze. These would be the friends who would bring me back to Japan and the chance of a new beginning.
Anyway, running there yesterday I felt very satisfied with the way my life over the last five years has panned out. I'm leaving here a better, more knowledgeable person. I'm a happier, more grounded person. Most importantly, I'm a person who finally feels he has some clear direction in life.
If you're out there going through troubles at the moment, stay strong. It's never too late for your life to take off in unexpected but exciting directions. Just be open to the universe around you. When you really stop and listen, as I did, you get the guidance you need.