Message from Shawn Iguchi

I used to live in Los Angeles California nearly 10 years.
I really love California because its weather is great throughout the year. After returning to Japan, I realized living in Japan is not as easy as living in California because Japan has four seasons. And its each season has a totally different character.
During Spring and fall seasons, Japan becomes as a great weather country as California but it doesn’t last long. Soon it goes into Summer which is insanely sweltering hot! And Winter season is also very cold!
You see, I work out regularly. I have a home gym. I lift weight three to four times a week. But during winter season, I can’t grip a barbell or dumbbell because it’s too cold to grip that my hands become numb from its cold temperature. During Summer season, it’s hell. You find yourself sweat is dripping from your chin and your shirt is all drenching wet from your own sweat! Some people say Japan is like New York. New York has a scorching hot Summer and chilly cold weather during Winter season but it’s not quite like that because Japan is high in humidity.

Japan has actually five seasons. The additional season is called “Tsuyu” which means “Rainy season”. Rainy season lasts from June to July. So we are now in Rainy season.
When “Tsuyu season” is over, Weather Department in Japan declares “Tsuyu is over now!” which is an annual event.

 

 

Japan is well known for Cherry blossoms but during Tsuyu season, you can see Hydrangea called “Ajisai (Ah-ji-sah-e) in Japanese.
I grew up in a country area. Unlike cities like Tokyo or Osaka, country areas are different. Each house has a large garden and backyard. Average house has 2 to 3 times of as large garden as their house. In my case, it was nearly 5 times of my house size. And most of houses have Hydrangea (Ajisai) in their gardens. So during Tsuyu season, you can see beautiful blue flowers of Ajisai in every garden in Japan. The beauty of Ajisai is the color contrast of dark green leaves and beautiful sky blue flowers. You can’t see Ajisai in California because Ajisai can only inhabit in high humid climate.
Let me show you some of examples from YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYcWS0l5JS0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8M9Eu9h_hQ

This is a really good one. Very much Japanese.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY2TQuYW4Bk