Two sixteen-year-old girls walked towards what they have always wanted to see with their own eyes, the place they longed to visit for many years. The two girls had read many manga that depicted a park or a place in nature that was beautiful, peaceful, full of life, or very romantic, similar to magical kingdoms from fairy tales.

The scenery that unfolded before them was a beautiful one like that of a sacred place. The scenery can be described as heaven for them. It was as if they had entered the pages of a manga they read. All around them was grass as green as raw apples and a dirt road before them that unraveled into the distance. Along the road lay excess cherry blossoms that formed a soft pink blanket, like a red velvet carpet rolled out on the floor for celebrities. The soft pink blanket gave the two girls a warm welcome.
The Sakura trees, cherry blossom trees, line up on either side of them. Dazzling sunlight streamed down from the bright blue sky and danced upon the petals of the flowering trees which made the flower petals a pale pink. The pink blossoms that bloomed illuminated a fluorescent pink glow and smelled like pink fluffy cotton candy. A breeze rushed past and brought with it the strong sweet scent of cherry blossoms in the air. Many creatures were attracted to the blossoms with a gravitational pull that nature gave them while they grew and changed with time and nurture from the workers who attended to them.
With tree trunks that were brown as chocolate pudding, the trees were covered with cicadas, a beetle-like bug with wings. Similar to that of a cricket, cicadas make noise with their wings and are usually found in warmer seasons like spring and summer. On top of at least one branch, throughout the countless trees, the insects basked themselves in the sunlight. They were not, through the thick canopy of flowering buds, visible. The separate buzzing of each cicada’s wings vibrated through the trees. Together, it was special a song they welcomed spring with.


Along the joints of the trees, bird nests could be seen with baby birds in them. There they chirped in the morning light to be fed by their mothers. They stood out among the trees because they were ugly, featherless creatures of new life. They especially stood out when they were near a cluster of the beautiful cherry blossoms that began to bloom throughout all the branches of the tree. Mother birds could be seen in the sky as they hailed down like an arrow toward their young ones.

As the girls continued their walk through the park, their thoughts raced back towards the scenes that have appeared in manga they have read. They were thrilled to be able to stand in the places they have seen in the manga. A short distance away from them down the road, where there were fewer of trees, was sunlight that was reflected from the ground which formed a spray of light. The source was a lake of deep blue like a sapphire gem. It was a round lake with scattered Sakura trees around its perimeter, motionless. The branches were still as statues. On the undisturbed surface of the lake lay loose flower petals that floated down from the trees. The blossoms faced the sky. Like miniature boats, the blossoms stayed aloft elegantly on the water. Unless disturbed by a breeze, they were motionless on the glass-like surface. Entranced, the two girls stood there and admired the scenery that lay before them. At the far edge of the lake, opposite the two girls, was a unique single leveled pagoda. With a pointed triangular top covered with dark gray shingles, it almost appeared black. The edges and the underside of the roof were colored the colors of breaking dawn. The corners where the edges met curved up like the tip of a talon. The pillars erected to support the top were of a pearly-gray stone. Around the pillars, along the inside, in a circle, benches made from the same material were built.


The silent atmosphere around the lake and pagoda emitted a sacred vibe. The pointed triangular top that showed above the flower canopy resembled temples, shrines, or houses back when there were emperors. Objects of old, or seemed like they are from an ancient time, possessed an aura of sacredness. The sacred vibe the scenery emanated made it look and feel as if nothing had disturbed them from their quiet, eternal slumber for many years.
Even the surrounding trees were still, it was like they listened intently for anything that disturbed the scenery. The trunks looked tough and some were bundled up like a knot on a rope. Behind the pagoda, towards the edge of the lake were turtles that lay out lazily on the green bank, fishes that swam carefree, and birds of many species, with many color combinations that swooped down from the sky. They landed along the edge away from harm or for a rest from their long journey. Even by the pond, the aura of the pagoda still seemed to be in effect. Nothing was to be interrupted or even harmed in any way.
As the girls finished their tour of the park, their thoughts went back to the first time they read a manga. The place being visited was just as they imagined it would be from the images burned into their memories by all those fantastical, unrealistic stories.