Perhaps it’s because I’m from San Diego, where the only two seasons are “nice” and “slightly less nice,” but I never thought that much about the four seasons before coming to Japan. All of that went out the window when I got here and suddenly found my life changing a little bit each month as the calendar marched forward. Japan is a very seasonal place, and there are strong customs defining what should be done at each time of year — for example, cold noodles are great in the summer, and once summer is over suddenly no one eats them anymore. It’s part of the Japanese psyche that they look strangely at anyone who isn’t perfectly in sync with this invisible seasonal timetable. For example, once I decided to go down to the famous Shonan Beach near Yokohama to check it out, but there was one problem: I was planning my trip during the first week of September. This caused everyone I knew to warn me about how dangerous it was to go to the seaside, and how typhoons could easily sweep me out to sea …despite the fact that it was only a few days after the end of August. Right now, everyone is getting into “Autumn mode,” ready to enjoy delicious matsutake mushrooms and the tinting of the leaves on the trees while drinking the limited Aki-Aji (“Taste of Autumn”) beer from Kirin.
Autumn is time for appreciating the golden leaves while drinking Kirin Aki-Aji beer.
