Hmm, as for nature and people going out into the countryside, or interest in nature, I suppose it depends quite a bit on where you live. I mean, I live in a quite large city of the UK, and I only know a handful of people who are what you might call 'nature-lovers' and make the effort to go out on some weekends or vacations into the country. I think people in the city tend to get absorbed in their social lives and activities here - although not to say that they don't enjoy or appreciate nature, but tend not to show it... unless they came from a country area before, and like to keep up that connection. So if you live in a city people are likely to be involved in the busyness of general life, whereas if you live in a country area, you are more likely to meet people who have come to the area to look at the nature, therefore getting more of an impression that people are keen on that sort of thing.

The 4 seasons, I suppose it depends on what part of Japan you're living in, since Japan is a rather long country, I imagine there'd be quite a big difference in the distinctions/transitions between the seasons.

I think Mac compares Japan to Northern Europe a lot because he has done a lot of living there so can compare the two places with plenty of knowledge to back it up.