Tsuyu, the rainy season

We’re already in June. May really has flown by!

I went for a quick walk before starting work this morning and the rain hit me: it’s almost (if not already) the rainy season…

The rainy season, called tsuyu in Japan (梅雨, literally “plum rain”), comes at the end of spring, between the end of May and the end of June, depending on the region’s latitude, and lasts about six weeks.

It’s such a thing that one can find early forecasts of when the rainy season is expected to start and end. Here for example: tenki.jp/rainy-season. Here in Tokyo, the forecast predicts the rainy season to go on from June 8th to July 21st.

I find the rainy season makes me more gloomy than usual. Although I’m an indoors person, the lack of sunlight can have an impact on my mood, and I really don’t enjoy the muggy weather… Also, the rainy season is the precursor of an even muggier season in Tokyo: summer and its unbearably hot temperatures and high humidity…

Maybe I should look for a cooler area where to live in summer!