Debunking the Four Seasons` Myth
May 10th, 2006 by quaisiIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
It`s incredible how quickly the temperature in Japan has gone from cold to sweltering.
Last week was Golden Week. The week before that I needed to wear a jacket during the day and layers of clothing to sustain a comfortable body temperature indoors at night.
Now, just two weeks later, I require nothing more than shorts and T-shirt even in the house - a far cry from the six layers needed in the winter.
Japanese people are proud that they have four seasons but I would contest that they have but two. Swelteringly hot and freezing cold.
Or if I were being less pedantic, a long period of intense humidity and heat followed by a short spell of pleasantly mild weather lasting at the most a month (and more accurately two weeks) preceding a long spell of intense cold weather.
This cold winter not helped in the slightest by a national mindset of confronting the cold rather than retreating from it as most Westerners/sane people are inclined to do with central heating.
I`m from an atypical climate myself. We have two seasons – a rainy season lasting from October to the middle of May followed by a short period of heat occasionally broken up with large patches of rain.
The French have a joke about the English:
-How do you know when it`s summer in England?
-The rain gets warmer.
Of course I`ll take swelteringly hot over freezing cold anyday.






May 11th, 2006 at 12:35 am
Jeez, I’m totally opposite… I’d rather be able to wear clothes than feel like I’m sweating through thin layers. And yes, I moved from Missouri, where there are four distinct seasons, to Texas, where, like Japan, there are two. Why? I’m not really sure anymore. But every August, I kick myself for a full month over it.
May 11th, 2006 at 12:44 pm
I don’t know about Osaka, but it’s seriously cold again today out here on Awaji Island.
February 23rd, 2007 at 5:59 am
this website is really weird! its the stupidest thing i’ve ever read in my whole life! what were you thinking?! my little brother can write a better story about that and i bet he’s smarter than you too!
put that in your report! hahaha
February 23rd, 2007 at 7:08 pm
Thanks for the comment hasu ping