What November is Like
We get a lot of questions from folks back home about the weather. What is it like in Japan this time of year? Do you have the same seasons as us? And so on.
Well, we do have, roughly the same seasons. Although they seem quite delayed according to our Midwest standards. Right now, for example, our region of Japan is just starting to experience fall. This coming weekend is supposed to be peak for fall colors. From what I understand, back in our hometowns, fall is something of a thing of the past.
Today our high was about 65 degrees Fahrenheit. A perfectly lovely temperature. The low was about 48 degrees. We have yet to see a frost and we have just started to pull out the hats and gloves for those chilly commutes in the morning.
But what floors me most about this time of year, is how much is still growing. Back home, by mid-November, the gardens are finished, the foliage is dried up, and the blooms are gone. Here it is quite a contrast and I really appreciate the fact that flowers and other greens continue to speckle the landscape keeping the whole thing slightly more cheery despite the early darkness. Sunset, for those interested, is at 4:48pm today. Sunrise was at 6:25am. Tomorrow will, tragically, be 1 minute and 42 seconds shorter. I think it is only a matter of time before the blooms that I adore will be gone.
All the pictures in today’s post were taken on my walk from my house to the train station yesterday. It is just a short ten-minute jaunt, but it is teeming with a wide variety of life.