Japanese people are famous for being very aware of the passing of the seasons. They organise special social events for blossom viewings in Spring and autumn leaves viewing, in particular. People around the world have different ways of celebrating the seasons. In Britain for instance, many people (e.g. Neopagans) go to ancient sites like Stonehenge at the summer or winter solstices for the sun rise or sun set on the longest and shortest day of the year. In the West, Christmas is a way of celebrating winter, with the typical winter decorations (including fake snow if necessary). In the Netherlands, people go and watch the tulips and other flowers (jonquils, petunias...) in Spring in specially designed gardens like in Keukenhof.


Personally, when I was in primary/elementary school, we had weekly pupil magazines, and they had different designs and activities in accordance with every season (it was more accurate than just the '4 seasons', as every month had something special). Contrarily to Japan, one of the most obvious change of seasons apart from the flowers, was the daily length of sunlight. In the Benelux, in winter the sun rises around 8:30am and sets as early as 4pm. So people go to school/work when it's still dark and go back home when it's already dark. So winter is clearly associated with darkness, cold, artificial lights (e.g. Xmas decorations), wood fire in the fire place, warm clothes, etc. In summer, sun rises around 5am and sets around 10:30pm. So (early) summer is associated with light. Coming from the countryside, it is also associated with the croaking of the frogs, the singing of the birds till late at night, or scent of various flowers and plants (which all completely disappear in winter). There are of course many blossoing flowers in spring and almost all trees have red and yellow leaves in autumn, but there aren't any particular tree (cherry, momiji) which are planted in lines of groves expressedly for blossom or leaves viewing like in Japan.

In Tokyo, there is hardly any of these differences between summer and winter. Flowers still bloom in winter, and the sun sets around 7pm at latest in summer (6pm in late summer, against 5pm in winter). Tokyo being a city, we also can't smell or hear so much difference in the nature (apart from the cicadas from late Spring to early Autumn). So, I feel that Northern Europe is better to feel the particularities of winter and summer, while Japan is better for spring and autumn.

How do you celebrate/admire the seasons, how much do you care about it, and how important was it when you were a child ?