(sunbeams streaming through leaves)

木漏れ日 is the first non-essential, genuinely aesthetic word I learned shortly after I first came to Japan. At the time I was living in a gorgeous rural area on the coast and a colleague taught this word to me as we were hiking through the woods and I commented on the image of the sunbeams streaming through the leaves. It was a joy to learn there was a word for it. Later, I could impress the woman who became my wife during our first hike in the same woods.