Tsuyu Festival

​Types of Rain

The Japanese language has many words to describe rain. There are more than 400 different words for types of rain! In English we use 'pitter patter' for the onomatopoeia of rain. In Japan they have 3 different words depending on strength.
Light rain = しとしと = shito shito
Moderate Rain = ぽつぽつ or ぱらぱら = potsu potsu or hara hara
Heavy Rain = ざあざあ= zaa zaa

​1. The name:

The kanji for ‘tsuyu’ are ‘梅 ume (plum)’ and ‘雨 ame (rain)’, and was originally introduced from China. The kanji 梅雨 has two readings, one is ‘tsuyu’ and the other is ‘baiu’, which is close to the Chinese original pronunciation. There are various theories as to why the name was chosen but a well-known theory is that the word ‘ume’ was first used to mean ‘rain during the ripening period of the plum tree’.

In your books write down 3 facts about the Tsuyu season on Japan.

​Select one or more activities from the list: