At the start of each season in Japan, the major domestic (Japanese) beer brewers offer special beers related to the season.
I just bought Suntory’s new 発泡酒 (malt liquor beer) for this spring, called 「春咲く薫り」(“Spring Blossom Fragrance”).
春咲く薫り(はるさくかおり)
I like it. Tastes good!
Tomorrow, 2013 March 20th, is 春分の日 (Vernal (or Spring) Equinox).
春分の日 (Vernal Equinox) is in the third week of March.
This is one of two days per year that both day and night are an equal twelve hours. It’s also commonly considered the first day of spring (in the northern hemisphere).
This day is a legal holiday in Japan. So, most people have the day off from work or school.
Six month later, in September, is 秋分の日 (Autumn Equinox). That is the other day that both day and night are an equal twelve hours long.
It’s commonly considered the first day of Autumn.
And it is also a legal holiday in Japan.
There is also, of course, 夏至 (Summer Solstice) in June. Daylight is longest on this day. It’s the first day of summer.
And, 冬至 (Winter Solstice) in December. Nighttime is longest on this day. It’s the beginning of winter.
Although both Spring and Autumn Equinoxes are holidays in Japan…oddly, neither Summer or Winter Solstice are.
Maybe you’re wondering how Spring and Autumn Equinoxes are “celebrated” in Japan.
On these days, many people go to their family grave at the cemetery to clean the grave, leave flowers and incense, and remember their ancestors.
Yesterday (Sunday, March 6th) was a nice day and it was pretty warm. My wife and I went to 上野 (Ueno, Tokyo) and walked around (my kids stayed home and studied for their final exams this week).
Ueno train station (Tokyo, Japan)
It was so warm that I began to think that spring has come. But this morning I saw the weather forecast on TV that said it would be a cold and rainy day today…and from about 9:00AM – lunchtime, it would snow!
Tokyo's weather forecast for 2011 March 7 - 14.
The weather forecast was exactly right. It was quite cold today and it snowed all morning starting at about 9:00AM.
I’m happy to see that it’s not forecast to rain or snow anymore for the rest of the week. It’s be sunny most days…and start getting warmer again. Next Monday is forecast to have a high temperature of 16°C (about 61°F).
How’s the weather in your city now?
Every year in October and April, when the seasons are changing, the temperature fluctuates a lot and it rains often.
Tomorrow (Monday) is a holiday in Japan. It’s 「体育の日」 (“Sports Day“). So it’s currently a three-day weekend here.
Yesterday (Saturday), the weather was very cool (high temperature was 19°C) and rainy in Tokyo. Today it was raining in the morning but has stopped raining and it’s cloudy now and warmer (about 23°C).
Tomorrow is forecast to be warm (high temp: 26°C) and sunny.
Next week’s weather in Tokyo is forecast to be sunny most days but rain again next weekend…and the temperature will go up and down.
This fluctuating temperature in early Spring and Autumn is called 「三寒四温」 (“Three days cold, four days warm”) in Japanese.
Tokyo's weather forecast for 2010 Oct 10 - 17. (Click to enlarge)
I was looking at tenki.jp, a Japanese weather website, to get Tokyo’s weather forecast, and I noticed that it’s possible to compare Japan’s weather to any other city in the world using that website.
So I decided to see how Tokyo’s weather compares to Tampa Bay, Florida (where I grew up).
It’s still quite warm in Florida, it seems. Yesterday, for example, was 19°C in Tokyo…but in Tampa, Florida it was 29°C…very warm.
Last week's weather...Tampa, FL (the blue line) vs Tokyo, Japan (the orange line)
How is the weather where you live?
(By the way, did you notice that today’s date is: ’10-10-10?)
Yesterday was cold and rainy in Tokyo again. In the evening the temperature went down to 2°C (about 36°F).
It’s sunny and warmer today…but still cool. The high temperature today is 11°C (about 52°F).
If you’re visiting Japan for the first time right now you’re probably surprised how cold it is for late April.
But this isn’t normal. It’s unusually cold for this time of year.
It actually snowed a bit in Tokyo last night.
On TV I heard that this was the first time that it snowed this late in the year in Tokyo since 1969!
But the weather forecast for Tokyo says that everyday next week will have a high temperature of around 18°C (about 64°F) and a low of around 11°C (52°F).
So hopefully the cold spell is over.
(But it’s forecast to rain next Wednesday to Friday in Tokyo. 😦 )
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My blog averages over 1,500 hits per day.
But yesterday my blog received the most visits in a single day so far…1,986 hits.
Before yesterday, my blog’s busiest day was 2010 February 14. It received about 1,850 hits that day.
Yesterday was my site’s busiest day…but I didn’t get a single comment yesterday. 😦
I appreciate all the visits to my blog. But I especially enjoy reading visitors’ comments…I guess most bloggers feel that way.
So, by all means, leave comments often.
Thanks.
Every year at the beginning of spring and again at the beginning of autumn, when the seasons are changing the weather fluctuates from day-to-day.
Yesterday, in Tokyo it was very warm and sunny (22° Celcius (about 72°F)).
But today it’s raining and much cooler. The high temperature in Tokyo today is only 11°C (about 52°F).
And then tomorrow it’s forecast to go back up to 22°C again!
The rest of this week high temperature will range from 10 – 18°C (50-64°F)…and rain some days and it’ll sunny on the others.
Weather in April (and October) is unpredictable.
Weather forecast for 2010 April 12-19 in Tokyo, Japan
How’s the weather at this time of year in your part of the world?
Today we went to 柴又 (Shibamata, Tokyo).
It’s a 下町 (traditional, downtown) area of Tokyo that I like alot. (Click here to see my post in which I explain a little about this area and have more photos.)
We also went to a nearby park and saw the 梅の花 (Plum flowers) and 寒桜 (Winter Cherry Blossoms) were in bloom.
梅の花 (Plum flowers)
寒桜 (Winter Cherry Blossoms)
It’s still cold in Tokyo…but spring’s not too far off now.
What kinds of flowers are in bloom where you live in the world?
What are the signs of winter ending and spring coming in your country?
Last week it had been getting warm. I was wearing short-sleeved shirts. It is mid-May after all!
But since Friday, it has been quite cold again! Today I wore a long-sleeved T-shirt under a sweat-shirt…and a wind breaker jacket. Feels like winter!
And there’s a typhoon in the Pacific Ocean near Japan…so it was raining the last few days. It stopped raining this afternoon, and it’s supposed to be nice weather for the few days at least.
Hopefully it gets warm again soon!
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Did you hear about that big earthquake that struck China a couple of days ago?
Thousands of people died. It’s a tragedy.
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Did you see the link in the righthand column of this blog (under the “Pages” category) for “My Website’s Main Page”?
Click that link, then click the link that says “Clicking here” to go to my Website’s other pages.
From there, you can visit My Guestbook (feel free to comment in the Guestbook…and under any blog post on this blog too).
If you can’t find the links that I just mentioned, you can just click this link:
http://www3.ocn.ne.jp/~tokyo5/index.html
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I’ve lived in Japan since 1990, so of course I’ve been to many places around Japan (and Asia, and America) than just the ones I’ve mentioned in this blog.
Some other places I’ve been to at least one time:
All over Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba, Saitama, Ibaraki,
Hokkaido (and the Sapporo 雪まつり (Snow Festival)),
Okinawa,
Niigata,
Nikko (and the 江戸村 (Edo-Mura)),
Nagano (and the ’98 Winter Olympics there),
etc
If you plan to visit Japan, and have any questions…maybe I can help.
Tokyo Five 
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