Summer in Japan is a season full of festivals and events, and is when many people get a chance to have a weeklong break for overseas traveling or family trips. It is also the time of year, along with the…
The Expat's Guide to Japan
Everything you need to know about living and working in Tokyo & Yokohama
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Singing in the Plum Rain
This year’s ‘plum rains’ (tsuyu) are upon us, and across the length and the whole country will be plunged into the long rainy season. This may be a yearly occurrence, but people still get depressed about the days of endless…
Cool Food – A Guide to Japan’s Culinary Summer
You may not have witnessed the subtle change at one of your visits to the conbini or the local supermarket yet, but Japan’s culinary summer has already begun. With food always being an indicator of seasons in Japan, it shouldn’t…
Tsuyu
Right in between Japan’s multicolored spring and scorching hot summers is a period of about 40-50 days, when the otherwise pleasant summer months become unusually gloomy, wet, and humid. This is tsuyu, Japan’s official monsoon season. (Also called plum rain…
The Japanese, the rain, and umbrellas
When you live in Japan you see that for half of the year in most places, it’s a rainy country — beginning with the fall of the cherry blossoms, then the thunderstorms in May, the monsoons in June, and the…
Tanabata Matsuri
Perhaps the most evocative of Japan’s annual matsuri (祭り, festivals) , tanabata (七夕) marks the beginning of the summer festival season. Closely linked with the stars, tanabata is celebrated by the writing of wishes on strips of paper, which are…
