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Tsuyu - Rainy season

The period is sunless with drizziling rain everyday that is caused by the atmospheric condition of low pressure in the southwest being stopped by high pressure from the northeast. When the rain continues without intermission, everything becomes damp, woodwork and furniture become moist, tobacco becomes humid, matches will not light, shoes and leather goods become covered with thick mould and the tatami feels sticky to bare feet. Far more disagreeable than these physical effects is that people become irritable as their spirits and internal organs are dulled by the weather.

On the other hand, rain at this time is absolutely necessary for rice cultivation. It grings water to the paddy fields for rice planting. When the rainfall during this season is unusually small, it becomes impossible to plant rice. Farmers pray for lots of rain while the city folk for a short tsuyu period.

The long damp weather impairs peoples' health, and it is only by taking extremely, hot baths daily that they manage to stimulate their dulled spirits and activate their internal organs. By sweating after a bath made as hot as possible, the dulled nerves and organs are aroused to necessary activity.

To many westerners the idea of taking hot baths during tsuyu seems the equivalent of pouring gasoline on a fire. But, like everything else in Japan, it is a thing that should be tried.