Tsuyu, the rainy season,

Tsuyu, the rainy season, began in Okinawa two days ago. From the state of the weather in Tokyo, I think it's begun here as well.

Even though it isn't really due here for another few weeks, the rain clouds rolled in and we suffered a classic tsuyu rain yesterday--slow, misty drizzle all day. This is the sort of rain that chills bones and finds its way up under your umbrella.

One odd upside to yesterday's weather is that I left my old umbrella locked in an umbrella rack outside the Communications Museum last week. Instead of retreiving it, I spent a foolishly large sum of money on a lovely olive green one with tone-on-tone giraffes embroidered on the edges and a bananaleaf patterned handle. So stylish. I hope I manage to keep it through tsuyu.