Autumn in Japan
home
home
siliconmom.com
Autumn Equinox in Japan By Brenda Dohmen It is now autumn in Japan. The Japanese know this to be true not because the air outside has become brisk or that the trees have begun to shed their leaves or even the fact that the children are back to school (Japanese children go to school year round). They know it is autumn because of the calendar, the autumn equinox, September 23rd. The day everything changes abruptly from summer to fall in Japan. Japan is very seasonal. There are many seasons: the usual seasons of summer, autumn, winter, spring and a few others too such as the rainy season, the typhoon season, the cherry blossom season and probably more. Being from Silicon Valley, we are used to the seasons changing a little more subtly. We are used to warm or even hot days well into October when you can still wear shorts and you can barbeque nearly year round with charcoal and lighter fluid available in the stores anytime during the year. To me September 23rd is usually the same as any other day in September. It’s not a holiday in the U.S; it’s not something we celebrate. They’re usually some autumn items newly available and Halloween decorations appearing in the stores but September 23rd largely goes by unnoticed by most people in Silicon Valley. When did I realize it was autumn in Japan? I had a hint when I entered the train station going to my hair appointment in Tokyo. It was a hot and humid day and as I entered the train station with the masses of people, I noticed that familiar odor of mothballs in the air. I saw immediately that people had begun wearing their wool garments again. They had probably just taken them out of mothballs that morning regardless that it was still warm and humid. I sat there on the long train ride thinking to myself, why are they wearing their wool; it’s so warm today? Surely it was still summer. My children were still suffering from multiple mosquito bites. It finally hit me when I went to the grocery store. I wanted to buy precooked, sliced chicken breasts to make sandwiches for my children’s school lunch. They did not have it at the grocery store. The item was suddenly no longer available. I thought to myself I saw it there yesterday and thought about getting it and decided I would wait. They will have it tomorrow, right? And what happened tomorrow? Well it was gone. That’s when I realized the calendar switched from summer to autumn. The store does not have it anymore, that’s it, its unavailable until next summer on June 21st (summer solstice). When once again I will be able to make sliced chicken sandwiches for my children. It’s not that the store or the supplier cannot make it anymore or that they ran out of chicken breasts. It’s that its used in a summer Japanese dish and that’s just not part of the fall menu for people in Japan. It’s been replaced by some precooked, sliced pork for some autumn specialty. Therefore availability on that item ended on September 22nd. Ahha, it’s autumn and it’s time for this silicon mom expat to get with the program and start cooking with the season. It helps that the warm roasted sweet-potato man drives by my house every evening in a truck with a load speaker blaring his sing-song Japanese advertising. He roasts them over open flames shooting out of the back of his truck as he drives slowly through the neighborhood. When I first moved to Japan I thought these trucks carried roofing tar or something until I realized they drove by my house every night and finally investigated to find…. Roasted sweet potatoes. MMMmmmm. We look forward to coming home for Christmas. We sometimes get a little homesick. From our family to yours have a very Happy & Healthy Thanksgiving Holiday. And hopefully we can find a Turkey and some canned pumpkin to cook for our own little Thanksgiving here in Japan. I guess anything can be had for a price. I paid $35.00 for a medium size Pumpkin so we could make a jack-o-lantern! About the author: Brenda M. Dohmen is a Connecticut native but has called the San Francisco South Bay her home for the past 34 years. A tomboy mom of two energetic boys and wife to a high tech sales executive she adores she has nearly lost all touch with her feminine side. She worked in Silicon Valley high tech marketing and materials for 15 years. After having her second boy she decided to trade in the high tech and stay at home. During the 80’s and 90’s she visited Japan on business, never did she think she would be living there as an expat wife. Her family moved to Yokohama, Japan in early 2001. This is her first foray into writing. In her spare time she takes lessons in Japanese culture, language and cooking, ikebana, and personal fitness. © siliconmom
