Four Seasons
Japanese essay time! While I’m far more partial to golden oldies than your average 23 year old, this post is (regrettably) not about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Though, I kind of wish it were. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, you are missing out. No, sadly, this is another Japanese essay. Very poorly constructed, I must confess. I am getting lazier and lazier with attempting to correct them before I send them in. That’s probably due to the fact that my brethren and I have come to realize that our labors are in vain – if you sneeze on your paper, you get a perfect 10. So why try? Well, I do want to learn Japanese…I just feel unmotivated. They don’t even offer corrections, so I annoy my Japanese colleagues. Luckily, they like me. Anyhoo – this one did not pass through their helpful filters verbally beforehand – I just put pen to paper (that’s a lie, I composed it on the computer and edited it, then hand wrote it). Anyhoo. Thought I’d keep it up. I’m thinking that I’ll try to write a topical Japanese blurb once a month in spite of the correspondence course, though. When it ends, I’ll try and keep this thing regular. Now, for the actual writing. First in Japanese, and then in English after the break.
質問：日本には四季（春・夏・秋・冬）があります。日本の季節の中で、あなたが一番好きな季節はどれですか？また、なぜその季節が好きですか？日本語でまとめなさい。
日本人はよく日本に四季があることを自慢に思います。しかし、私の実際の経験によると日本人の四季観と実際は違います。出身のサウス・カロライナ州には季節が二つだけあると思います。それらは長くて、蒸し暑くて、熱い夏と長くて、蒸し暑くて、暖かい秋のような季節です。サウス・カロライナには真冬はありません。最後の雪が降った時をまだ覚えています。１９８９年の１０月の終わりごろでした。ヒューゴと言う酷い台風が９月に来たので、その年の天気が変になりました。私たちの芝生にあった雪を熊手でかき集めて、身長が低かった雪だるまを作られました。その時から、冬が好きな季節として思っています。
出身地には真冬がないので、日本の冬を本当に楽しめます。もう札幌市の雪祭りを見に北海道に行って回りましたし、一度新潟県にスキーをしに行きました。でも、今私は瀬戸内海の伯方島に住んでいるが、伯方島にも真冬がありません。伯方島は日本の島ですが、日本らしい四季がありません。伯方島なら、秋と春の方が好きです。なぜなら、夏が暑くて辛いからです。伯方島に住んでいる人々なら、皆がそう思っているかもしれません。
伯方島の季節で、面白いことは、夏だけがはっきりと他の季節から分かれていることです。実は秋から春までは毎日変わっています。段々変わって行くことではなくて、毎日全然違う天気になることです。ある教頭先生が私に教えて下さった諺を思い出します。「女心と秋の空は変わりやすい」と言う諺です。意味はよくわかりますが、伯方島の季節なら、その諺に冬も春も加えた方がいいと思います。
最後に、今まではもう一つこの作文に出していない季節が残っています。それは梅雨です。それを季節に含むと、伯方島には四季があると言えます。しかし、普通の日本の四季ではなくて、特別な四季です。夏、秋、春、梅雨で新しい伯方島の四季と言えるでしょう。
Prompt: There are four seasons (spring, summer, fall, winter) in Japan. Of the Japanese seasons, which is your favorite? Why is it your favorite? Answer in Japanese.
Japanese people often think very highly of the “Japanese four seasons.” In my experience, however, the Japanese image of the “Japanese four seasons” and reality are quite different. In my native state South Carolina, I think there are but two seasons. Those seasons resemble a long, humid, hot summer and a long, humid, warm fall. In South Carolina there is no true winter. [Edit: I am seriously over generalizing here to make the essay easier for me to write. In reality, parts of SC do have winter. The areas of Mt. Pleasant and Charleston, however, are another story. Forgive the hyperbole.] I can still remember the last time it really snowed. It was near the end of October in 1989. A powerful hurricane, called Hugo, came in September, and as a result that year’s weather became quite strange. We used a rake to scrape together the snow that had fallen in my yard and built a very short snowman. From that time on, I’ve thought of winter as a season which I rather enjoy.
Since there is no true winter in my state, I thoroughly enjoy winter in Japan. I’ve been up to and all around Hokkaido in order to see the Sapporo Snow Festival, and I’ve been to Niigata Prefecture once in order to ski. However, now I live on the island of Hakata in the Seto Inland Sea, and there is no true winter here either. Hakata is an island in Japan, but it lacks the “Japanese four seasons.” In Hakata I prefer the seasons of fall and spring because the summer here is hot and oppressive. I imagine that pretty much everyone on Hakata thinks the same.
In the seasons of Hakata, one interesting thing is that summer is the only season clearly delineated from the other seasons. The truth is, from fall to spring, every day changes. I don’t mean that it changes gradually as the seasons progress. I mean that every day has radically different weather. A saying that a Vice Principal once taught me comes to mind. “Women’s hearts and autumn skies change easily.” I fully grasp the meaning of that proverb, but for Hakata, I think we should add winter and spring skies too.
Lastly, there is a season which has not yet come into this essay. It’s tsuyu, the rainy season. If we include tsuyu as a season, then we can say that Hakata has four seasons. These seasons are not the normal “Japanese four seasons,” but rather a special four seasons. We can call summer, fall, spring, and tsuyu the four seasons of Hakata.
Wow. Aren’t you glad that one is over? It’s basically a contrived nonsensical essay that wanders all over the place and never actually answers the prompt satisfactorily. I apologize to all my college professors who taught me better than this…hahaha. Too bad I’ll still get a 10 for it. Oh – and Clay has his essay up, so check his out too.
