himawari: sunflower

While different eye color is not at all uncommon in the US, it's quite rare in Japan. People will often refer to the color of their eyes as "black." It's pretty accurate. There are some people, however, whose eye color more closely resembles a brown (and in cases where this brown is light, it's really shocking).

Lately, the younger kids of my elementary schools have taken a liking to my eye color. Brown? Green? Hazel? A little bit of everything, they've decided to call it something new entirely.

Himawari, or sunflower.

It's not an exact representation, but I like it. There's brown, there's green, and there's even a little something between where the brown and green blend together.

It's kind of nice, especially on those feeling-down days, to have a kid ask me to see my eyes, then to have her utter, 「お～、向日葵（ひまわり）だ。」(Ooh, sunflowers!)

Photo sourced from 花の壁紙写真ブログ.