At the end of February starts the blooming of Japanese apricots, followed by peach blossoms after the middle of March. Gradually getting warmer by every rainfall, the season moves on to April with the blooming of pale pink cherry blossoms. When the nature breath brings warm spring air, led by the fresh green of young sprouts, comes one of the most pleasant months in Japan, May.

From mid-June to mid-July is the rainy season ( Tsuyu ), bringing a sharp increase in humidity along with the early summer heat. It does feel unpleasant, I admit, but to the Japanese rice growing farmers, the long spell of rainy weather is a sort of heavenly bliss .

Mostly by the end of July the rainy season would be over, and then comes the days of abundant sunshine. Temperatures keep rising until it hits the peak from the end of July to mid-August. There are slight differences according to each region, but a daytime high in midsummer can easily go above 30 degrees ( centigrade ), and sometimes even up to 40 degrees ( centigrade ).

Because of this intensity of both heat and humidity, some people find these summer months not only unpleasant, but even unbearable. However, summer in Japan has its own attractions. Surrounded by sea, Japan has a coastline whith many beautiful beaches, as well as the inland mountains, waiting for mountaineers to come. Colorful fireworks display ( Hanabi-Taikai ), local summer festivals, from ocean sports of all kinds, to appreciating the beauty of fireflies, summer is a season chock-full of attractions, that can only be experienced during this time of year.

The typhoon season is usually from September to October, with Japan's southern islands Okinawa and Kyushu, bearing the brunt of typhoons on their northern advance.

As the temperature rises in summer heat, sea water evaporates causing an updraft, which later turns into a typhoon on the South Pacific, southeast of Japan. When a typhoon hits the land, the weather in most parts of the country would be influenced by the power of it, strong wind and rainstorms. Some of these typhoons cause serious damage.

Fall covers September, October and November, painting the leaves of maples and other deciduous trees with crimson red and yellow, coloring the mountains and forests.

This season not only brings us the beautiful scenery, but also carries to us the harvest of food. Fruits such as apples, pears, grapes and chestnuts, rice which Japanese live on, fish like salmons and sauries that are well fed during the summer, with just enough fat. And on the contrary to spring, the temperature drops with every rain gaining coolness and dryness.

Winter sets in around December and stays until February. Winter in Japan sometimes can be extremely chilly, and there are days when the daytime high barely reaches 5 degrees ( centigrade ). The Pacific side of the country is cold and dry with mostly clear weather, while the mountainous regions and the Japan Sea side experience heavy snowfalls.

But this snowfall allows us to enjoy various kinds of winter sports from skiing to snowball fighting. These winter sports facilities may be a little apart from the large cities, but the good thing is that in many cases they are in easy access of hot springs. It can be said that this is a sort of added value to the winter sports in Japan.

Anything about weather from forecast to meteorological data
Japan Meteorological Agency ( Japanese ) : http://www.jma.go.jp/jma/index.html

Weather informations in English
Japan Meteorological Agency ( English ) : http://www.jma.go.jp/jma/indexe.html