Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa
It was the summer of 1991. I flew from Tokyo to make a presentation to the group at the headquarters. My very first business trip to Seattle. Alone.
The presentation was over. Relieved, I took advantage of the half a day left for me in Seattle to do some sightseeing. Destination? Where else? Pike Place Market!
There were quite a few people on the street, but nobody I knew. Every building, every store was new to me! I walked along, thoroughly enjoying my solitude.
The sun was warm and bright. I walked up the little park next to the market, then was taken by the big, vast blue! The blue sky, and the blue sea, separated by the white snowcap of the mountains.
“How wonderful would it be if I could see this view every weekend!” Looking at the woman walking a dog in the park, I felt so envious of her. How lucky she is! She must live here.
I was young then. And ambitious. But moving to Seattle to live was only a faraway dream.
Last week I visited Pike Place Market alone. The market had been renovated here and there, but the main structure is kept mostly the same. I walked up to the newly-added open sitting area with benches facing Puget Sound.
The same huge blue. The horizontal stripe of blue, white, and blue. The view that I now feel almost at home. I’m not as young, not as optimistic, but looking at this huge blue still brings back my memory of seeing it for the first time thirty-some years ago.
I just wonder why there are negative connotations with the word “blue”. Blue color should be treated more fondly, in my humble opinion.