Four Seasons in Japan (or More Precisely in Kyushu, Japan)

I lived in a city (Kumamoto City 熊本市 in Kumamoto Prefecture) and town (Nakatsu 中津市 in Oita Prefecture) in Japan. To me, Kumamoto City is an ideal city to stay. It's not too crowded and not so rural with all the necessary public transports and shopping malls. I visited Tokyo before and I felt the environment was too crowded to my liking, while my second home, Nakatsu was a bit 'kampung'. There're paddy fields in front and behind my apartment building! During summer time, whether you like it or not, the insects chirping will accompany you the whole night.

Both places gave me a very good safety sense, I felt safe even when I went out at the middle of the night alone. In Nakatsu, there's even no street light outside my apartment and there's a small graveyard nearby. Well, it's so well maintained that I didn't feel it's creepy to live so near to a deceased resting place. Anyway, sometimes I would go out on the middle of the night to buy things in the convenience shop on a bicycle and I totally enjoyed the quietness, it was kind of dark though, have to be really careful not to drop into a drain. One of my friends joked that we are just the temporary tenant who stay in a place, but the deceased is the permanent resident of a place. Good point!

Another plus point when living in a foreign country is I got the chance to experience four seasons, especially winter. However, me and another friend, Dila is done with winter now, still ok with autumn and spring though! Winter was too cold for us, no matter how thick we wore, plus the uniqlo heat tech, plus woolly socks, plus woolly gloves, plus heat pads (2 - one for each pocket), beanies, etc. The cold was chilling to the bones! Snows, when I first laid my eyes on the white snow, I felt very exciting, after awhile, I started to get tired about the slippery road and monotonous white. Autumn and spring was awesome, spring with the flowers and autumn with the read leaves.

Well, below are the photos that I have taken from my apartments in Kumamoto and Nakatsu. I missed the views.

Kumamoto
I stayed in the 8th floor, so I could get a pretty good view from the balcony. 

view from my apartment in Kumamoto (4 seasons)

The photo below shows the view during summer, water and greenery, it's quite soothing to the mind.

Summer View 2011

However, during summer, it's raining season in Japan too. I think it happened during June 2011, the river almost overflowed its banks. I was at home that day, it was quite scary to see the water level kept rising! That year, the Kumamoto Station underground level was flooded too. Luckily, no casualties. However, Kumamoto was not so lucky in 2012, Kumamoto had a very big flood and people died. I already moved to Nakatsu then, when I watched the news, I was so worried for my friends and former colleagues who stayed in Kumamoto. A friend got stuck in Hitoyoshi because the train railway was covered by mudslide, scary!

river almost overflowed its banks (June 2011)

river almost overflowed its banks (June 2011)

The photo below shows the main road in front of my apartment. It's quite near to the Kumamoto Station (around 15 minutes walk to my place). The most special thing on this photo is the lack of cars on the road! Even during rush hour, I have never seen the road become a giant car park. In Malaysia, even in a small town, the road is congested everyday, maybe loosen up a bit during the night only. It's enjoyable to drive in Japan for me, even though some of my friends complaint that the speed limit was too low!

road in front of ANA Hotel Kumamoto New SKY on a rainy evening

Then, Kumamoto is at the Southern Japan, so it seldom gets snow during winter. At most it will form a small layer of snow and then when the snow stops, it will melt away. It's so rare to see snow in Kumamoto City, however if one stays near Aso, one can almost guaranteed to see snow during winter.

The two pictures below show Shirakawa River banks covered in a small layer of snow. I have only seen it once during winter.

Snowing (Shirakawa River)

Snowing (Shirakawa River)

Normally, during winter the view was like the picture below, void of foliage. The view was quite bland.

Shirakawa River during winter

Spring was the best season. The river banks were filled with flowers (so full of it). It was very lovely to stroll slowly along the river banks of Shirakawa River during spring. I got a new Panasonic DMC-GF3 that time and I was using a basic digital camera before, so I was very excited and tried experimenting with the camera (with auto mode, of course). Until now the only photography term that I understand is shutter speed, other like aperture, metering, ISO speed, focal length is like alien words to me. That's why I am totally depending on the auto mode, no need to make the brain work so hard. 

Finally, with my new toy, I could blur out the background and focus on the object, like the photo below. Hahaha. It was so convenient, thanks to the advancement of technology.

Flowers in the river banks on Shirakawa River

I spent so much time on the riverbanks, admiring the sea of flowers. The next day, my eyes were very itchy. Earlier, I told a Japanese colleague that I went for a walk to see the flowers, when she saw me rubbing the eyes, she said that most probably I was allergic to pollen! Wow, that's new to me, allergic to pollen. However, for many Japanese, the season they hate the most is spring, it's the season for flowers and pollen. Come spring, a lot of them will start to wear mask, suffer from flu and watery red eyes, it's the season of pollen allergy 花粉症. Going into a pharmacy in spring in Japan, there are many medicines and masks, special for people with pollen allergy. The electrical shop will promote air purifier too, some actually invest in the air purifier to lessen the allergy symptoms. One of my colleague would dry her clothes outside the balcony even during winter, however during spring, she would send the clothes to laundry shop to avoid pollen fallen on her clothes, she is very allergic to pollen!

Anyway, I love spring!

river banks on Shirakawa River

river banks on Shirakawa River

river banks on Shirakawa River

river banks on Shirakawa River

near Kumamoto Shimotori (a shopping area)

Nakatsu

After around a year in Kumamoto, I was transferred to Nakatsu in Oita Prefecture. It's a quiet place near the sea. There're many small plot of paddy fields around my apartment. So, it's quite cute to look at. 

paddy field (4 seasons)

Pictures below show the growing sequence of paddy. I could always see the farmer working the field when I was not working during weekend, they have this small machine / vehicle to transplant and harvesting. The size is good for a small field like this. In Malaysia, the machine used is big and not so suitable for a small plot of land like this (haven't see it with my own eyes, just seen from the TV shows). Another plus point of all these machines was it's not so taxing to the elderly farmers. They were still able to do all these hard works with the help of technology, nice!

after transplanting the paddy seedlings (spring)

paddy growing up (summer)

bird looking for food in the paddy field (summer)

lush green field (summer)

the paddy rice grains (summer)

after it turns yellow, fully ripen, time for harvest (autumn)

After the paddy fields were harvested, the fields looked so pale! Like in Kumamoto City, snowing is a rare occurrences, but I managed to get a photo on the field with small layer of snow during a weekend(≧∇≦)/.

winter

Well, it's a very long post. Now I am back in Malaysia with many sunny days without four seasons. In terms of weather, although I don't miss winter a bit, I do miss spring and autumn. Especially the colourful flower part!