Growing up in the heart of America, we had 4 distinct seasons, and each one had their extremes. The heat of the Illinois summer really cooks, but on the opposite extreme the cold of the winter was enough to get frostbite if you weren’t careful. The weather in the prairies of America is volatile — you can get huge temperature swings in the same day, and the most ferocious thunderstorms in the summer.
Compare that to Brazil, when we lived there, and there were only two season. 6 months of rain broken with super humid heat and sunshine, followed by 6 hotter months of pure sunshine. That was a huge adjustment to make, but by the time I had lived there 7 years I was adapted.
Now Japan is different from all of those. We have 5 seasons in Japan! Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring and Rainy season. I guess officially it is only 4 seasons, and within those four seasons, the fall, winter and spring are much more mild then I was used to further north in Illinois.
But before you can get to the summer, you have to go through several weeks of constant rain. This rain is not like the thunderstorms of Illinois or the broken clouds and downpours of Brazil. It is typically days on end of endless rain, sometimes broken by a slight stop that then resumes again. It drags on and on and makes you wish for some sun. When the sun does come out, it blazes away before things cloud up again. Yes, this is Japan’s rainy season, and it’s in full swing.