For a country of such famous subtlety and nuance, in which the subjects of sentences are usually left off because everyone knows what is being discussed from the context, Japan’s seasons are anything but subtle. Winter is fiercely cold, with a biting wind that comes down from the Japan Alps called kara-kaze; spring is alive with cherry blossoms and chirping uguisu (Japanese nightingale) outside my window; summer is unbearably hot and humid yet overflowing with unique Japanese flavor, and so on. Although summer in Japan is sticky and unpleasant, I find it’s my favorite time of year in Japan — you can always escape the unbearable heat by running your air-con (Japanese air conditioning is great), and no other time of year is as full of awesome Japanese festivals, from Tanabata in July to the big fireworks festival that signals the end of summer in our city. There are some famous images of summer in Japan, such as a glass of mugi-cha barley tea sweating beside a slice of suika (watermelon), or girls wearing colorful yukata cotton kimonos. Another famous image is 蚊取り線香 katori-senko, the spiral-shaped “mosquito-killing incense” that burns for 6-10 hours while emitting a pleasant smoke that keeps mosquitoes from tormenting you. We’ve got this incense in stock today, as well as the iconic katori-buta or “mosquito killing pig,” a ceramic pig that holds a burning incense coil safely to keep the ash from falling into the floor, etc.
Summer is one of my favorite times of year in Japan.
