The Return of the Hawk

I went to Mount Kasa to see if the Tsubaki flowers had bloomed. I was about a month late so I bought some bread to feed the pigeons. Then I remembered that there's a spot where you can throw bread at hawks and watch them swoop down in hot pursuit to grab them.


Who wants to feed boring, disgusting pigeons when you can feed birds of prey, I thought. Can pigeons circle above your head and dive-bomb at 100 mph to catch a piece of bread that left your hand 1 second before? I tried to be cute and hold a piece of bread in my hand and it occurred to me that a hawk could easily rip off several of my fingers, and just as I wizened up a hawk missed grabbing me with his talons by a few feet. The whole time I was standing there I was gripped by a fear of the unknown. I don't have eyes on top of my head, and if a hawk circling above me had decided at any minute to tear down and rip off my head there wouldn't been a thing I could've done about it.