Things are Heating Up...

After a fairly rainy/cold welcome upon my return to Japan from China, Things have warmed considerably.  Students are back to wearing their lighter summer uniforms after a long chilly (but not cold) winter.

I like to think of right now as the calm before the storm--the weather is bearable now; soon, when the summer hits full-bore, humidity and all, it won't be.

Winter weather update

A week or two ago one of my co-teachers informed me that winds from China were blowing over the Sea of Japan and warming Tottori. Apparently the locals call it "Kiroi Kaze," or "yellow wind," because the warm winds come from the Gobi Desert and carry small bits of sand with it ("don't dry your clothes outside today," he informed me). It's taken to be one of the first signs of spring.

Of course, since then we've had a wee bit of snow (not enough to stick) and the temperature has plummeted back down to the single digits on and off, but we are slowly shifting towards spring here. Finally got pictures of the street sprinklers in action; see attached.