梅雨明け
Rainy season is now officially over in Kansai and other parts of Japan.
This year the season of drizzle and gray skies and humidity started much earlier than usual and, thankfully, has ended earlier.
In Kyoto, the traditional end to rainy season is said to occur by July 17, the day of Gion Festival.
We are still well shy of the big day, and blue skies punctuated by light-as-cotton clouds were a clear departure from the weather of the last few days.
Blistering high-summer temperatures were another sign that rainy season has gone.
Thank god.
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TK16 Master Kendama
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Showing posts with label Rainy Season. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rainy Season. Show all posts
Kyoto Rainy Season Hydrangea
京都紫陽花It's time for the annual hydrangea blog.
The island of Honshu, on which Tokyo and Kyoto are found, comes alive every June at the outset of the rainy season with colorful varieties of hydrangea.
Now in the middle of the rainy season, the flowers have lost a bit of their bloom.
These plants were along a one-track rail line in western Kyoto. The two most common type of hydrangea - the big round bulbous type, and the more delicate type - were both hugging the Randen train line tracks not far from Myoshinji Temple.
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When umbrellas go cup-shaped
おちょこにされる
Japan's rainy season, or tsuyu, generally happens between May and July. Japanese are very particular about getting rained on, and umbrellas go up at the slightest hint of droplets in the air. The past three or four days have also been quite gusty, meaning the sight of umbrellas - especially the 500 yen, convenience store, variety - turned inside out is a common one. There is even a special word for the phenomenon: ochako ni naru, or ochako ni sareru.
An ochako is a small sake cup, the two characters for the word being "boar" and "mouth" 猪口 - a combination that, nevertheless, is believed to be substitute characters used phonetically, not etymologically. (However, it is usually written using only hiragana.) The word is also used to mean "cup-shaped."
Thus, having your umbrella turned inside out is to have it made cup-shaped: the typically small circle of a base, under which you are haplessly standing, flaring out upwards on now ramrod-straight ribs towards a large-diameter rim.
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Japan's rainy season, or tsuyu, generally happens between May and July. Japanese are very particular about getting rained on, and umbrellas go up at the slightest hint of droplets in the air. The past three or four days have also been quite gusty, meaning the sight of umbrellas - especially the 500 yen, convenience store, variety - turned inside out is a common one. There is even a special word for the phenomenon: ochako ni naru, or ochako ni sareru.
An ochako is a small sake cup, the two characters for the word being "boar" and "mouth" 猪口 - a combination that, nevertheless, is believed to be substitute characters used phonetically, not etymologically. (However, it is usually written using only hiragana.) The word is also used to mean "cup-shaped."
Thus, having your umbrella turned inside out is to have it made cup-shaped: the typically small circle of a base, under which you are haplessly standing, flaring out upwards on now ramrod-straight ribs towards a large-diameter rim.
© JapanVisitor.com
Yahoo Japan Auction Service
Japanese Friends
Tokyo Apartments Search
Japan Job Search
Rough Guide To Japan
Tags
Japan Weather
Tokyo
Kyoto
umbrellas
Japanese
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