日本の夏

It’s now summertime.

Currently it’s 「梅雨」 (“Rainy season“) in Japan. As usual for this time of year, it’s forecast to rain a lot for the next few days.
But also, the temperature is rising steadily and it’s quite humid. Today it was a muggy 31°C (88°F) in Tokyo.

Summer is hot and humid here…but it’s still very enjoyable. There’s so much to do.
Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer are all very different in Japan. Of course the weather is different…but I mean the food, festivals, and general atmosphere is different and unique to each season.

In a couple of earlier posts I mentioned that fast-food chains in Japan have spicy items on their menus  (Click here to read one of those posts)…but fast-food isn’t a traditional Japanese summer tradition of course, and actually their spicy summer foods aren’t extremely popular in Japan (I haven’t even tried any of them).

There are traditional foods that are very popular in Japan during the summer to help you deal with the summer heat.
Some of them are:

– 冷やし中華 (“Hiyashi Chuuka“). Cold noodles, cucumbers, ham, tomatoes, and cold soy sauce.

– スイカ (watermelon)

– かき氷 (shaved ice)

– ビール (beer)…Popular all year long, of course. But excellent to help you cool down in the summer.

– うな丼 (Freshwater eel on rice). This is said to help keep up your stamina in hot weather.

うな丼 (Freshwater eel on rice). I enjoy this dish a lot!

Some other aspects of summer in Japan include:

– the beaches and pools become crowded. Especially in August.

– the numerous summer festivals including 花火 (summer fireworks shows).

– insects. The “sound of summer” in Japan is the chirping of the セミ (cicadas). There are also カブト虫 (beetles)…and, unfortunately, ゴキブリ (cockroaches) and 蚊 (mosquitoes).

– 蚊取線香 (mosquito repellent incense).

蚊取線香 (mosquito repellent incense) often is shaped like a pig

To stay cool, there’s also ウチワ and 扇子 (types of paper fans), and ジンベイ and ユカタ (traditional Japanese summer clothing).

This isn’t an all-exclusive description of a summer in Japan, of course. It’s difficult to describe…you should come to Japan in each of the seasons and see “four different Japans”.

What’s summer like in your country?

２００９年夏の「みたままつり」

Yesterday (2009 July 13), we went to the first day of the 2009 「みたま祭」 (Mitama Festival).

This year this festival is from Monday, July 13 until Thursday, July 16. So, if you’re currently in the Tokyo area you can go to this festival. It’s at the 靖国神社 (Yasukuni Shrine).

靖国神社 (Yasukuni Shrine) is where Japan enshrines all who have died in battle defending Japan. I wrote a bit about it in another post…click here.

We have been to 靖国神社 (Yasukuni Shrine) many times, and we go to the 「みたま祭」 (Mitama Festival) nearly every year.
I wrote a post about this festival last year…click here to see it. That post has videos and a slideshow of photos.

In the summertime in Japan, there are many Obon festivals…which are festivals to honor the deceased. And, as I wrote above, 靖国神社 (Yasukuni Shrine) is Japan’s shrine for the war-dead. So the 「みたま祭」 (Mitama Festival) is a festival to honor the war-dead.

They were heading to the festival.

They say: "Mitama Festival, July 13-16. Yasukuni Shrine"

At the festival many people wear ゆかた and じんべい (Japanese traditional summer outfits).

At many summer festivals in Japan, there are haunted house attractions. These have been popular at summer festivals since long ago in Japan because it’s said that the chills from the fright help cool you off in the summer heat. (Horror movies are also popular in the summertime in Japan for the same reason).

Here’s the outside of the Haunted House attraction at 「みたま祭」 (Mitama Festival):

「ろくろ首」 ("Long neck Geisha Ghost") is a old traditional ghost story.

As usual, we had a good time at the 「みたま祭」 (Mitama Festival) even though it was a hot day. We had 焼きそば (Grilled Noodles) and beer, watched the ねぶた (Nebuta) float parade, and our kids played festival stall games.

花火大会

Yesterday my wife, our two youngest daughters and I went to a 花火大会 (fireworks show).

My oldest went to the fireworks show with her friends.

One of our daughter’s friends came with us, too.

My wife and daughters prepared a wonderful picnic for us to enjoy during the show (just as they do every year 🙂 !)

We had おにぎり (rice balls), 枝豆 (soy beans), イカ (squid), 寿司 (sushi), corn on the cob, pineapple slices, and beer (the kids had grape soda)! Wonderful!

Fireworks shows in Japan are great. It feels like summer has officially started with the fireworks shows.

Even before the fireworks begin, the feeling of Japanese summer is in the air…

the sounds of 蝉 (Cicada (if you don’t know what a Cicada is…you can read about them on this Wikipedia page)), people eating スイカ (watermelons), the jingling of 風鈴 (wind chimes), and people wearing 浴衣 (summer kimono) and 甚平 (traditional summer outfit).

Here’s photo of some people sitting down before the start of the fireworks show:

Here’s a couple videos I took of people finding a spot to watch the fireworks (there were many people dressed in 浴衣 (summer kimono) and 甚平 (traditional summer outfits) but not so many can be seen in these videos 😦 ) :

If you ever have a chance to watch a 花火大会 (fireworks show) in Japan, you’ll feel they’re excellent, I’m sure.

Also you may hear people shout 「タマヤ」 (“Tamaya!”)　and 「カギヤ」 (“Kagiya!”) when the fireworks go up and explode. It’s not heard as much today as it used to…but some people still do.

This came about because centuries ago, fireworks shows were done by the Tamaya company. After a while, some workers formed a rival company called Kagiya. When that company started, the two groups would compete at fireworks shows to put on better displays.

From then on, Japanese people would call out “Tamaya! Kagiya!” at fireworks shows.

Anyways, here are six videos that I took at yesterday’s fireworks show (it’s hard to appreciate fireworks works on small YouTube screens…to really appreciate Japanese fireworks shows, come to Japan in the summer and watch one in person!)