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We often say that to learn the Japanese language well, you also need to learn the culture, because the two are deeply intertwined. Here’s one more example of that, with a full list of the 72 seasons of Japan, courtsey of Nippon.com! These seasons were originally taken from China, then adapted to Japan in the 1600s. Today is “Crickets chirp around the door” season, although we haven’t seen many around our Japanese language schools in Tokyo and Fukuoka…
Our current favorite is probably June 11-15, “Rotten grass becomes fireflies”. They are all based in nature, which makes sense for tracking the seasons, of course, but doesn’t always work so well these days with climate change and urbanization. Perhaps we need to update the list – “September 17-20: Otaku swarm to Tokyo for the annual Tokyo Game Show”, anyone?