Culture

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• Tsuyu — Japan's rainy season isn't bad weather to wait out, it's the month the country spends watching one flower change color

  Japan's rainy season isn't a month to skip — it's the one season with its own flower, its own words for rain, and a little doll hung in the window to beg for sun.

• Shōgatsu — the Japanese New Year, when the entire country quietly resets in three days

  The Japanese New Year isn't a party — it's three days of national stillness, family, and a specific lacquered box of food. Here's what happens.

• Hanami — the Japanese national ritual of sitting under temporarily-blooming trees, on purpose, with friends

  Japan plans its early-April calendar around a flower that blooms for one week. The whole country gathers under it on purpose.