Photo/Illutration Visitors check out Japanese irises at the Horikiri Shobuen Iris Garden in Tokyo's Katsushika Ward on June 14, the day the Japan Meteorological Agency declared the apparent start of the rainy season in the Kanto-Koshin region. (Yosuke Fukudome)

To do laundry or skip it? The fickle weather information of the “tsuyu” rainy season keeps me in a state of agonizing indecision.

Should I forgo the chore and the sun comes out, I feel betrayed.

A haiku by Yahan Goto (1895-1976) goes to the effect, “It rains during tsuyu/ It shines during tsuyu/ That’s a fact.”

The Kanto region had a welcome break from the dreary weather on June 28, and I was able to hang out my towels and shirts on the clothesline. The cucumbers and tomatoes in my vegetable garden were also soaking up the rays.

Not that washed items are capable of photosynthesis, of course, but they looked as if they were getting charged with the sun’s energy.

“Klara and the Sun,” the latest novel by British author Kazuo Ishiguro, is about the eponymous solar-powered android, which believes in the goodwill of the sun.

“When I was lucky enough to see (the sun), I’d lean my face forward to take in as much nourishment as I could,” says Klara.

She never doubts for a moment that her energy source, the sun, can also cure any human of their illness. And that is why she begs the sun to fill her friend--an ailing young girl--with its nutrients.

Reading this novel during tsuyu, I felt Klara’s faith was not misplaced.

The cover of the book’s Japanese edition shows a large sunflower (himawari in Japanese), also called “nichirinso” (literally, sun wheel plant) and “higuruma” (sun wheel).

From ancient times, people must have seen a miniature sun in the flower.

I was able to encounter sunflowers again this year, standing tall and erect above other flowers and plants.

“The sunflower’s yellow packs the power of 100 people” is a haiku penned by Shizuo Kato.

Midsummer must be around the corner, now that it doesn’t get chilly even when it rains.

I noticed that other flowering trees of summer, such as the crape myrtle and “mukuge” (rose of Sharon), have also started blooming in a lordly manner.

--The Asahi Shimbun, June 29

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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