Microseason Forecast for Oct 28-Nov 1 ~ Notes from the Japanese Almanac

Today begins a new microseason! If this is your first time joining us, scroll down past the forecast to read about what exactly a microseason is. For the rest of you, let’s jump in!

The Current Microseason: Light Rain Occasionally

Today, 28 Oct, begins 霎時施, the 53rd microseason (候, kō) which is read kosame tokidoki furu and means light rain occasionally. This is the second microseason of Sōkō, which is itself the sixth and last solar term of autumn.

The almanac tells us that the spitting rain of autumn that lasts all day should be ending around now, replaced with light rain showers that end quickly to reveal clear and beautiful autumn skies. Well, at least on the Pacific side of Japan; on the Japan Sea side, the skies are mostly cloudy as they forebode the year’s first snowfall.
_

^{“Shower on Nihonbashi Bridge” by Utagawa Hiroshige}

Seasonal Vegetable

The seasonal vegetable is sweet potatoes, known as satsuma imo in Japanese. The Japanese sweet potato is very sweet, much more so than the kind we grow in America. It is often eaten by itself as a desert or a snack. It is more of a pale yellow than the orange US variety (note: the Okinawan purple sweet potato is a different beast)

^{Sooooo good}

One of the highlights of winter is when the roasted sweet potato truck comes driving by, his coming announced by a jingle playing from a loud speaker on his truck. Everyone loves this.　It’s kind of a healthy version of the ice cream man^[1]. His coming and the music he plays is a joy to hear, but it also reminds us that winter is coming.

---

Here is a haiku for this microseason:

さびしさのうれしくも有秋の暮 蕪村
sabishisa no ureshiku mo ari aki no kure

in loneliness
there is some joy
autumn evening
—Buson

Late autumn is considered a lonely time. The insects singing at night is mostly gone, and this silence makes us feel more alone. But, Buson reminds us, there is also a kind of peace in this loneliness.

^{”Moonrise at Tokumochi” by Shotei Takahashi}

---

Will move this info to another post soon, but for now, briefly:

• each month has two seasons, giving us 24 seasons, which are called solar terms. This gives the system its name, the 24 Sekki (二十四節気). I usually refer to this entire system as The Japanese Almanac. It is more than a little similar to the American Farmer’s Almanac.
• each of these 24 seasons is further divided three more times, giving us a grand total of 72 seasons. There aren’t many English translations for these 72 seasons, but the few that exist seem to have settled on calling them microseasons, so I will use that here as well.
• each microseason is about 5 days. With time periods so short, they can get pretty specific about what in nature we might expect to be happening around now.
• The system was originally from China, but it was reformatted during the Edo era (1603–1868) to fit better with Japan’s climate. I find it also fits fairly well with much of the Eastern half of the US. But if you live in a different area, your milage may vary.
• The entire system is based on the equinoxes and solstices, so it is fluid and the exact dates will vary from year to year. Luckily there are a great many Japanese sources that do the astrological computations for us and tell us exactly when each one starts and ends every year.

The next microseason start on Nov 2nd. See you then for the next forecast!

---

1. This may be an American thing, I suppose, where in summer a man drives around selling ice cream cones. ↩