Tsuyu — Japan's Rainy Season (梅雨)
The “plum rain” month between spring and summer: why it's written with the plum kanji, hydrangeas and teru-teru bōzu, and the rain vocabulary Japanese is famous for.
From roughly early June to mid-July, a stationary front parks itself over Japan and it rains — softly, greyly, for weeks. This is 梅雨 (tsuyu), written “plum rain” because it coincides with plums ripening. It's the unofficial fifth season, with its own icons: hydrangeas, snails, and small ghost-shaped dolls hung in windows to wish for sunshine.
Rainy-season words
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 梅雨 | つゆ tsuyu | the rainy season (lit. “plum rain”) |
| 雨 | あめ ame | rain |
| 傘 | かさ kasa | umbrella — the convenience-store kind is 500 yen |
| 紫陽花 | あじさい ajisai | hydrangea, the flower of tsuyu |
| てるてる坊主 | てるてるぼうず teruterubouzu | hand-made doll hung up to wish for clear weather |
| 湿気 | しっけ shikke | humidity — the real enemy |
| 梅雨明け | つゆあけ tsuyuake | the end of rainy season (summer officially begins) |
A language of rain
Japanese distinguishes rains the way English distinguishes winds. A fine drizzle is 小雨 (kosame); a sudden evening downpour is 夕立 (yūdachi); rain that falls while the sun shines has the wonderful name 狐の嫁入り (kitsune no yomeiri, “the fox's wedding”). You don't need them all — but 雨 itself is JLPT N5 and appears constantly in weather forecasts, which are excellent listening practice: see the kanji page for 雨.
Surviving tsuyu like a local
Carry a folding umbrella (折りたたみ傘), embrace the coin laundry's dryers, and learn the phrase 「じめじめしますね」 (“humid, isn't it”) — the seasonal equivalent of talking about the weather anywhere else on Earth. When 梅雨明け is declared on the news, the whole country exhales and summer festival season begins.
🔊 Tap any word in the vocabulary tables to hear it spoken.