Tokyo sun shower

Summer in Tokyo is very hot and humid.  There is a typhoon season and sometimes a sudden thunderstorm with heavy rain will start seemingly out of nowhere…and then stop just as suddenly with blue skies returning.

Japanese people are sometimes surprised if I tell them that summer in Florida (where I grew up) is very similar.

Summer in Florida is also hot and humid. There is a hurricane season (hurricanes, for all intents and purposes, are basically the same as typhoons) and sometimes sudden short thunderstorms occur there too.

In fact, the area in Florida where I lived, Tampa Bay, is called “the lightning capital of the world”.

When the weather is sunny and then a rainstorm suddenly starts…with the sunny weather returning just as suddenly, Floridians call that a sun shower.

So I also referred to the same phenomenon in Japan as a sun shower, as well.

But a few years ago, the Japanese media gave these storms an original Japanese name.  Here in Japan, these storms are called 「ゲリラ豪雨」 (“Guerrilla rainstorms“) because of the way they violently come out of nowhere.

Well, yesterday, there was a sudden, short, ゲリラ豪雨 (Guerrilla rainstorm)…and someone photographed it from the Tokyo Sky Tree tower.

The 「ゲリラ豪雨」 (guerrilla rainstorm) that hit the Tokyo area yesterday. It looks like a tornado!

October weather

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?)

第44回スーパーボウル

I don’t have too much interest in most spectator sports. I enjoy the Olympics, boxing, and American Football.

I didn't know the NFL updated their logo in 2008.

When I first came to Japan, American Football was never shown on TV here or even mentioned in the newspapers (except for the English-language papers). Most Japanese people had never seen an American football* game.

*(I say “American football because that’s what the game is called outside of the U.S., to differentiate it from soccer (which is often called “football” outside the U.S. (Japanese usually refer to that game as 「サッカー」 (soccer) though))).

But the NFL (America’s professional football league) stepped up their campaign about five or six years ago to make American football popular in Japan…much like soccer, baseball, and basketball are.

The NFL has played games in other countries, including Japan, to try to increase interest outside the U.S.
But it has had limited success.
In Japan, though, around five years ago, the NFL helped introduce American football to high schools and colleges in Japan.
At first it wasn’t popular and the only students who joined their school’s American football team were the ones who didn’t make the soccer or baseball teams. But the games slowly begun to grow in popularity here…although it has nowhere near the popularity that it has in America (yet).

And now American football has begun to be shown on TV here in Japan. Not every game…only the Superbowl game and a few other key games.
And the games that are shown are aired late at night and edited to fit into the time slot.
But that’s enough for me. Even if every game was aired, I’d probably only watch the Superbowl and games that the “Tampa Bay Buccaneers” played (I grew up in Tampa Bay, Florida).

Tampa Bay Buccaneers logo

Last night I watched the Superbowl playoff game of the New Orleans Saints versus the Minnesota Vikings.

New Orleans Saints

vs.

Minnesota Vikings

The final score was New Orleans – 31 / Minnesota – 28…so the New Orleans Saints will play in the Superbowl against the Indianapolis Colts.

Indianapolis Colts logo

So 「第４４回スーパーボウル」 (“Superbowl 44“) will start in America in less than 24 hours from now (Sunday, 2010 February 7 at 6:00PM (American EST))…but it won’t air in Japan until about fourteen hours later.

If you’re in Japan and you and to watch the American football Superbowl game…it will be aired on 「日テレ」 (Nihon TV) on Monday, 2010 February 8 at 24:29 (aka. Tuesday, 9 Feb at 00:29AM).

Do you like American football? What’s your favorite team?
Will you watch the Superbowl? Which team do you hope will win?