Fish are jumpin' but the living isn't so easy!

A large plop heralded the carp's enviable re-entry into the cool depths of the Fuji River the other day, as I and Mairi observed it; while waiting for another air conditioned car to pass, in order that I might proceed towards the air-conditioned play room which presents one of the few viable alternatives round here to my own air-conditioned living room.

Summer is definitely here. Average 33 degrees in the day with God knows what percentage humidity, and last night I actually thought it was cool because it was only 24 degrees in the middle of the night! You are lucky if it gets past 24 in the middle of the day in Scotland unless it is a freak heat wave. I shall enter my 15th year of residence in Japan tomorrow. Jeez , how old am I anyway? However 14 full years of experience does not make it any easier for me to put up with summers here. I'm melting, and this year I can't even do it quietly on the couch. " Let's go park , Mummy!" " Let's go pool, Mummy!" Will more than two hours a day of dvd watching really turn her into a serial killer?

One of M's Japanese Music class CDs has a song on it called "青い夏" (Aoi Natsu) "Blue Summer". When I first heard this I thought: that's weird, blue is not a colour I would associate with summer. I always thought blue was a cold depressing colour. Think "turning blue with cold", "Blue Christmas" etc. When asked, the other Mums said, well what colour is summer for you then? Not sure really, but yellow or red maybe?? I feel my cultural identity has been eroded somewhat over time, so what would you other native English speaking people say was the definitive summer colour?

Anyway, the Japanese people I have asked have all said "Yes, it's blue!" And their arguments of blue seas and big blue skies with fluffy clouds are all quite convincing. You'd think having been here all this time I would have stumbled upon that deep one myself. Perhaps it's just that it's too damn hot to go outside so I never see those things.

Since Summer has arrived this year though, I've decided that if I had to put a colour on a Japanese summer it would definitely be green. From the first day I stepped off the plane in Miyazaki (and it was 36 degrees that day too) the lush bright greenness of the countryside in Summer has always struck me. The UK has green too, but it's almost psychedelic here. The image brought forth by the evergreens on the mountains of Kyushu and the natural foliage of the mountains here on Honshu is of an enchanted broccoli forest (not my quote, it's the name of a cookbook I have but a great image I think!). Then there is the pale green of the ever regular bamboo grove, and the rich green of the neat rows of tea plants. Frogs, lizards and grasshoppers laze around in shades of olive and khaki and almost lime green. And the chartreuse colour of the rice fields in the sunlight is a constant, rippling in what little wind we get.

Green. Definitely green summer.

But then there does seem to be some colour blindness here with respect to blue and green. Traffic lights, aojiru ( a yukky - pardon the value judgement- vegetable juice whose name translates as "Blue Juice" , and ao nori (seaweed), aomushi ( caterpillar) are a few examples of things which are called "blue" but are most definitely green. The traffic light one may be up for argument, as it is not the same shade as a British one, but I have heard Japanese kids saying " why do we say blue when it's green Mum?".

SO maybe it's a linguistic perceptual thing. Maybe we do actually agree on the colour of summer. Maybe we are just using different words. I like that. Yes, I like a happy ending. Let it be so.

Or maybe it's just that we see what we want to see. In Japan it's so damn hot that the coolness implied by all the blues and greens is what they look forward to. In Scotland it's so damn dreich all the time that we think of the sun and its warmth with longing, so that's what we associate with Summer. Who knows?

All this green and water and the rhythmic sing song of the cicadas, gives such an impression of cool that I want to sue whoever is responsible for it all for breach of the False Descriptions Act. Because it's certainly not cool here. Or if He (or She??!) could just let some rain come this way so I can have some respite, that would do too!

I think I could even drink that crap gout beer now!