Adam here again, taking over Cheree's blog to tell you another story of my life over in Japan.
Sometimes living in a foreign country is like living on an
alien planet. In your homeland you get used to things being a certain way, but
as soon as you go elsewhere you’ll find that things are hardly ever simple. The
weather is always going to be unpredictable, but at least at home it’s an
unpredictable that you are familiar with.
I moved from a dry desert country in the southern hemisphere
to a muggy wetland in the northern, so there’s a lot of getting used to. For
starters the seasons are reversed. I’m used to September being my much beloved
Spring, instead here it turns to Autumn, so what is for me usually a warm and
lively season becomes a cold and bitter one instead.
Technically speaking, Japan
has 24 seasons called 旬(Jun) which last around ten days a piece, all of which
have unique and varied characteristics, but just like Australia (which
technically has 5) and many other countries around the world, they make use of
the standard four season naming practice for simplicity’s sake. Summer and
Winter are the two high points of each year regardless of how you wish to call
them.
Summers here can get a bit hot, but while everyone is busy
exclaiming あついよ (Atsui yo “It’s hot!”), I’m
chilling easy because hot here and hot in Australia are two different beasts.
When I left Australia, we were in the midst of a record breaking heatwave of up
to 50°c, which is hot enough to melt roads. So yeah, not really bothered by
heat here. I actually enjoy the Summers here. One of the best days I’ve had was
sitting in a McDonalds that had a broken air conditioner, it made me feel right
at home, like I was back in Australia. The biggest problem with Summer here is
that it is so humid. No matter where you go you wind up drenched in sweat
before too long.
On the other hand, Winters here are ridiculously
cold. I do
not like snow. I once spent a hellish two weeks working at an Australian
ski lodge (yes, they do exist) and, aside from wanting to murder
several of the noisier people I had to bunk with,
it left me with a deep passionate hatred of snow. It’s like sand, but
cold.
It gets everywhere and after the first fifteen seconds of ‘ooh, isn’t it
pretty?’, it
gets to be very annoying. In winter here, it snows A LOT. Either I have
the
worst luck on the planet or the weather here hates me, because I keep
getting hit
with record snow storms wherever I am. I am not kidding. A couple of
years ago,
Cheree and I were touring Japan and in that small window of time Tokyo
was hit
by a massive blizzard. We lucked out and were in Kyoto that day, but
still slim
odds that we were in the country when it happened.
Don’t believe that? Try this one, last year I was living in
Yamanashi (near Mt. Fuji) and we got hit with a ridiculous amount of snow. It
lasted for several weeks and everyone kept commenting on how they’d never seen
so much snow before. One of the teachers even lost a car because their garage
collapsed under it all. People here, having gone through a few major disasters
already, are rather quick to panic at any sign of the abnormal. I’ve spoken
before on the wonders of Conbini, but once panic
shopping begins it doesn’t take long before the stores wind up as ghost towns.
Making the mistake of living off Conbini meals and impulse snacks, I was
dismayed to see the steadily dwindling supplies each time I entered. It started
with the readymade food and bread, then all the ramen, then all the basic
elements of food, then all the party snacks, then whatever wasn’t bolted down,
then whatever was. It got so bad that there were rumours of rescue choppers
preparing to make supply drops. At the time I had plenty of food in the house,
unfortunately 90% of it required the basic element of electricity to prepare
and with rolling blackouts it did get pretty dicey. I have since learnt my
lesson, and have a cache of survival food ready in waiting. Just in case.
To compound matters, there is also an entirely unique
Japanese season. 梅雨(Tsuyu) or Rainy Season.
As I said earlier, I come from a desert
land so I’m not used to seeing so much rain at once. Just days and days of
falling rain at the turn of the season. You get a lot of 台風(Taifuu) or Typhoons during the
Rainy Season. Severe wind and rain ranging from seemingly endless rain to
full-on hurricanes. As a matter of fact we’ve got a major one barreling down on
us right now, registered as the most powerful storm on the planet all year.
I’ve been lucky so far and all the typhoons have petered out before reaching my
location but you can’t dodge every bullet.
That being said, it’s not all
doom and gloom over here. I can happily confirm that Spring here is exactly
like the Anime said it would be. When the Sakura trees are in bloom, you are
treated to an awe-inspiring sight. Everywhere you go pretty pink petals are
raining from the sky, and it is enough just to be able to watch it happen. I’ve
spent ages just sitting around watching the surreal dance of falling petals and
no matter how many times I see it, it is still a marvel to behold.
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