Rainy Season

June in Japan is the designated season of rain, but this does not include typhoons, as they are special enough to have acquired their own special time of the year. According to a Japanese person, should you be so inclined to ask, rainy season starts on June first and ends on June thirtieth. And why not, in a country where people don't generally start camping or swimming in the ocean until it is technically summer (never mind the weather) and where heaters are not brought out of hiding until at least November, no matter how cold you may be.

So far, it has not been much of a rainy season. It poured once or twice at the beginning of June, and again about two weeks ago, but that has been the extent of it so far. There was one night recently when I went jogging, and it wasn't raining so much as it seemed to be the air had turned into droplets of water, and were remaining in a state of suspension as they were not falling, but were definitely heavier than a mist.

On Saturday it hit thirty-five degrees, driving me out of my apartment in search of sudare blinds, hoping to find some feeble way of stopping the sun from trying to cook me alive in my own home. I came home with half a dozen which barely fit in my car, and have suspended them around my garden and other areas in the hopes that I will not awaken at 4:30am when the sun starts appearing over the local mountains.

This morning I awoke at 5:00am instead, which was a slight improvement, but that was due more to the winds gusting through, causing the hi-hat to clang discordantly. At 6:00am I re-awakened to the sound of sirens blaring from the roof of the nearby town offices. I suppose I am grateful that the don't change the time of the siren to co-ordinate with the sunrise, however I would be infinitely more grateful should someone (perhaps me) should make it up there with wire snips and other nefarious tools of silence.