Japan bracing for early arrival of cold waves toward winter

November 18, 2017


Japan bracing for early arrival of cold waves toward winter

Japan sees cold air masses coming down from Siberia almost every week these days, as low pressure systems emerge east of the Japanese Archipelago. Weathermen warn the temperature will fall to around zero degree centigrade in some  areas in northernmost Japan later November.
November, the month which links autumn to winter, used to be called the Month of Frost in Japan. Damage from fallen frost is a threat to farmers in many parts of Japan. Particularly, unusually early or late frost falls cause serious damage to farm products.

Someone, someone has found a small autumn
Blind-fold tagger! come and catch me
To ears that listen carefully faintly sounded 
Whistling calls of a shrike
...........
Room facing the north, misted glass
Vacant eyes, dissolved milk
Autumn winds coming through a tiny opening
............
Weathercock of a long long time ago
On a hazy cock's comb, a leaf of a wax tree
The leaf is red like sunset
Someone, someone has found a small autumn
(A personal translation)

This is a poem written by Hachiro Sato who was active from the 1960s to the 1970s. He became famous particularly because he left many poems as lyrics for children's songs.
Japanese have seen signs of the global warming in their daily life these years, just like people in other parts of the world. Warm winter has become a less unusual thing to their life.
Signs of an early arrival of winter this year may be "an indication that the seasonal cycle is just getting back to the previous, proper pattern," says an amateur climate watcher living in Fukuoka Prefecture, southwestern Japan, "but we should not be optimistic."
Winter is called "fuyu" in Japanese, while autumn is "aki." Fuyu means propagate or proliferate, and aki means get saturated.
From autumn to winter, all things in the universe get saturated and propagate quietly and gradually to repeat their life cycle.
The road is covered with withered dark red and yellow leaves, and the leaves will be swept away with a gust of cold wind. Autumn festivals for thanks for the good harvest and prayers for the ancestors are over.
Cold days around this time of the year pave the way for new lives to be born in the spring time.
Busy days in December are just around the corner, but the nature tells season-conscious Japanese people that the merry year-end and New Year's holidays are also weeks ahead.