TSUYU–A BLESSING IN DA SKIES!

The month of June brings the rainy season. Prepare yourself for a soaking from the thunder clapping gods!

Tsuyu, or Baiu (as it is sometimes called), literally translates as “plum rain”, so called because it coincides with the plum-ripening season (although you could be forgiven for mistaking “plum” for “glum” judging by the looks on the faces of salarymen during this somewhat drab period). Rainy season lasts about six weeks, and as with all seasons in Japan, arrives a month earlier in Okinawa, with our northern friends in Hokkaido being the only part of Japan that is barely affected by the big wet. Officially, the Kinki period is penciled in from June 6 until July 19—plenty of time for a right soaking. With weather patterns changing all over our somewhat troubled little blue planet, however, the above dates have become the subject of some contention. And in Japan it’s not uncommon to hear a weather reporter saying “The rain we are having now is not rainy season rain. The rainy season rain shall begin as soon as this rain finishes, and rainy season rain officially begins.” Clearly, Japan often tends to follow official calendars produced by experts rather than taking of note the torrential downpour that may be drowning the country.

From a meteorological point of view, Tsuyu forms when the moist air over the Pacific meets the cooler continental air mass. This forms a dense frontal depression that brings the rain to Japan. The season lasts while the front moves back and forth between the cool and warm air masses, depending on the respective strengths. A kind of weather war if you like. It all comes to an end when the warmer, moist air mass becomes the greater of the two and is strong enough to push the front away to the north where it becomes weak and eventually dies out. This humid weather, coupled with the dark skies, is another reason to add to the long list of why Japanese businessmen—and the rest of us for that matter—often sport a rather dispirited look around this time of the year.

Japanese children make dolls at school called teruteru-bozu which they dedicate to sunny days ahead. They sing songs as sandals are flung into the dark skies with the hope that they will land face-up indicating that it will become sunny the following day. So don’t be alarmed if you’re struck by a wayward size-2 shoe while passing by your local kindergarten, as it will just be a pintsize soothsayer preparing to deliver the daily weather oracle. Which leads us to touch on the mystical and divine that’s lost amongst the sweat and frowns on our crowded subways and streets during this period.

Tsuyu delivers spiritual water revered by many of the world’s major religions: Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Rastafarianism, Shintoism and Taoism. Hinduism has one of its central beliefs tied to the water cycle (known scientifically as the hydrologic cycle), which refers to the continuous exchange of water within the hydrosphere (the earth’s water considered collectively) which, for those of us finding our high school science lessons fading from memory, very basically consists of the following: evaporation - water entering the atmosphere from bodies of water in vapor form, precipitation—water vapor condensing and falling back to earth, and runoff – water pouring from the land back to sea. This is why the water of the mighty Ganges is so revered. It’s a representation of life. Rain pours into the mountain streams, down to the mighty Ganges, which winds its way back to the ocean only to rise back up into the sky to begin the cycle again. This mirrors the human life-cycle, so Hindus believe: birth, life’s journey, death and spirit.

The Bible (Peter 3:5) states: ‘The earth was formed out of water and by water’. I’d guess even Charles Darwin would be of an agreeable opinion. The Koran proclaims, ‘We made from water every living thing.’ In Shinto, water is used in almost all rituals to cleanse.

With our bodies consisting of anywhere between 55 and 78 percent water, it is no small wonder that it plays such a huge part in our lives and spiritual beliefs, for if we removed water from the equation we are left with very little. This leads us to some number crunching for a little more perspective on just how precious this “nectar from the Gods” is.

Water covers more than two thirds of the planet’s surface, with 97.2 percent of that being of the salty variety in our oceans. Of the remaining 2.8 percent (don’t lose me here), 90 percent of that is frozen solid in our ice caps. Leaving the miniscule left over percentage to be one hell of a commodity, one that has definitely not been overlooked by the ever-efficient Japanese government. So efficient, in fact, that they have done all in their power to collect every possible drop of this liquid gold by damming or diverting all but three of Japan’s one hundred and thirteen major rivers. To date, over three thousand dams have been constructed to collect any precious precipitation that should fall on Japan. Any natural stream, creek or river that hasn’t been transformed into a U- shaped concrete casting; you can rest assured it most certainly will in the future. Japan’s civil engineering geniuses are so efficient at what they do, they have up to this point been able to save so much of this resource that most prefectures have more water than they could possibly use for the next projected twenty years – most possibly forever.

Like our world religions and Japanese civil engineers, we should appreciate those life-giving droplets this coming Tsuyu. For just imagine a world with no rain… No rainbows. No beer or bars. No snowballs to throw... no snow. No sea or seashore and jellyfish to squish under the toe. No more fun... No one.
So this rainy season, while you’re going about your daily life, when you hear the rain gods clap their thunderous hands before pouring down life’s most precious element, count your blessings in da skies, throw your wellies and brollies in the bin, get out into that rain and sing, sing, sing!

Text: Leonard Broersen