Being in Japan for almost twenty years, I always welcome the hot summer days. Hot sunny days with blue sky always give me a nostalgic mood of being in my city of Tamil Nadu, India where the peak summer temperatures could go up to 40° with sweat getting dried on its appearance. In contrast Japanese summers are so humid that one gets the feeling of being bathed in sweat all day long from morning to night. So in Japan I realized unfortunately, I need the coolness of airconditioners in spite of having a fondness for the feeling of being hot. Moreover, Japan being the "country of rising Sun", I get the opportunity of greeting Sun earlier and hence also started to get hot ahead.
One more clear difference could be the water resource in Japan compared to towns in my place. It goes without saying that water shortage is almost inevitable while I have never come across such severe water shortage here. In my childhood we had times that we would need to wait during the night for the water spring to release and obtain the water in the morning that could be one or two buckets and wait for the whole day. In here presence of water is taken for granted and sometimes I wonder about how fortunate Japan is in its water wealth.
Another major difference is that the summer generates a real festive mood in Japan. Each small local community or group even in our BSI there is always a summer festival or get together. So I see real welcoming of summer in spite of the fact that it comes every year and its coming is taken for granted as every group prepares for that major event of the year. People belonging to the local community gather in yukatas to celebrate bon odori and hanabi. This is really something special and we do not have in India. This gathering not only provides an opportunity in forming a local network that can have experience in organizing events but also paves a way to bring about interactions among complete strangers. Whenever I attend one of the gatherings, being a foreigner I am always included into the bon odori circle and asked to join the others in dancing. Amongst the hot humid weather with the taiko drum beats and the recorder playing the same melody it is really a enjoyable feeling to take one's mind away from the everyday activities. This year I had the chance of visiting the summer festival of a Japanese kindergarten to see my daughter's natsu matsuri. Of course all children came dressed up cute in their yukatas. There was as usual a taiko and to my utter surprise most of them did form a circle and danced their bon odori. Teachers had trained them well and I think training from such a young age of three would plant the tradition deep into their minds and thus preserving an important culture of Japan. Happy Natsu matsuri to all.
