Light Rains Sometimes Fall: A British Year in Japans 72 Seasons

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In the West we consider the passing of the year through the prism of four seasons. Other cultures see natures turn quite differently, however. The traditional Japanese calendar recognises that the subtle changes of the natural world with a total of seventy-two microseasons (k) inspiration for a new way of connecting with nature closer to home.

In seventy-two short chapters, Lev Parikian charts the changes that each of these microseason brings to his local patch garden, streets, park and wild cemetery.

From risshun (the birth of Spring) in early February to daikan (the greater cold) in late January, Lev draws our eye to the exquisite beauty (and mundanity) of the day to day, while also comparing two different perspectives. For Japans lotus blossom, praying mantis and bear, we have bramble, wood louse and urban fox. But the rhythms and the power of nature to reflect and enhance our mood are the same.

By turns reflective, joyous, sad, melancholy, light-hearted, serious, funny and occasionally absurd, this is both a nature diary and an engaging insight into how nature refuses to fit into our boxes, however large or small.

Author Bio

Lev Parikian is a writer, birdwatcher and conductor. He is the author of Into the Tangled Bank (2020) and Why Do Birds Suddenly Disappear (2018). He lives in West London with his family, who are getting used to his increasing enthusiasm for nature. As a birdwatcher, his most prized sightings are a golden oriole in the Alpujarras and a black redstart at Dungeness Power Station.