I lived in Japan over 50 years ago and your article brought back the taste of sour plums. I also make plum wine while I was there and carried the jar with me through 8 years of moving from place to place until the wine had matured. It was wonderful. I love Japan.
My wife and I visited Japan 6 years ago now. We happen to go the last few days of May and the first couple weeks of June. We did not know it was the beginning of rainy season.
We simply joined the crowd and bought ourselves a couple clear umbrellas and packed them with us everywhere we went. I had no issues with the rain and quite enjoy my memories of our adventure even with getting soaked couple days
So interesting! I adore umeboshi, I'd love to be an umeboshi superheroine...much less dramatic than having to be bitten by a radioactive spider or being from outer space...
I notice (or at least I think I do) that 梅雨 has the kanji for "mother" as a radical in it, is that correct? Is there a reason for this? What do plums have to do with mothers?
梅 consists of two compounds, 木(“tree") and 毎 (“aways” or “crave”). So if you break it into compounds, it means something like a “tree you crave?” The compound 毎 is considered to be in the same group as 母, but I don’t know why it is part of the kanji.
Apparently, the kanji means something like "the tree everybody knows" because it's among the earliest that bloom and it is a symbol of spring and the new year.
I truly love Japanese, but must admit it drives me nuts bc it's so difficult.
I lived in Japan over 50 years ago and your article brought back the taste of sour plums. I also make plum wine while I was there and carried the jar with me through 8 years of moving from place to place until the wine had matured. It was wonderful. I love Japan.
I like the rain, too. Especially in gardens. Okayama’s Korakuen garden was gorgeous yesterday.
My wife and I visited Japan 6 years ago now. We happen to go the last few days of May and the first couple weeks of June. We did not know it was the beginning of rainy season.
We simply joined the crowd and bought ourselves a couple clear umbrellas and packed them with us everywhere we went. I had no issues with the rain and quite enjoy my memories of our adventure even with getting soaked couple days
So interesting! I adore umeboshi, I'd love to be an umeboshi superheroine...much less dramatic than having to be bitten by a radioactive spider or being from outer space...
I notice (or at least I think I do) that 梅雨 has the kanji for "mother" as a radical in it, is that correct? Is there a reason for this? What do plums have to do with mothers?
Thank you so much!
梅 consists of two compounds, 木(“tree") and 毎 (“aways” or “crave”). So if you break it into compounds, it means something like a “tree you crave?” The compound 毎 is considered to be in the same group as 母, but I don’t know why it is part of the kanji.
Thank you so much, I must have misread the second radical. I tried to find out some more and found this from the Japanese Embassy: https://www.us.emb-japan.go.jp/jicc/doc/Teaching%20Tuesday/2017/20170131ume.pdf
Apparently, the kanji means something like "the tree everybody knows" because it's among the earliest that bloom and it is a symbol of spring and the new year.
I truly love Japanese, but must admit it drives me nuts bc it's so difficult.
Mold rain is more to the point but too horrid-sounding! When I had a saliva test for Covid I was shown a picture of an umeboshi!
Hahaha! I heard about it Did it work for you?
I think it helped a bit!
Mahalo for sharing your thoughts and such a wonderful photo of the spider. I'm gonna show my nieces the next time I see them
Worst part of rainy season - dodging the umbrellas spikes unaware people seem determined to rake across your eyes!