Photo/Illutration Workers sweep up ginkgo leaves after autumn rain in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward in 1963. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Around this season, an often-heard Japanese phrase is "onna gokoro to aki no sora," which means that a woman's heart is as fickle as the autumn sky.

However, I was told that the original version was "otoko gokoro to aki no sora," meaning that a man's heart, not a woman's, was as changeable as the autumn sky.

I consulted a number of dictionaries to confirm, and indeed, that was the case. Apparently, the male-to-female switch occurred due to the changing times.

Come to think of it, Japan had a form of marriage called "kayoi-kon" in olden times, under which the couples lived apart and the husband "commuted" to his wife's residence.

And I can imagine that it was often the women who wept in disappointment when their hubbies not only kept them waiting, but did not even show up.

A poem by Gishumon-in no Tango, a woman who is believed to have lived around the late Heian Period (794-1185) or the early Kamakura Period (1185-1333), goes to the effect, "The wind of loss of interest blows away even my vow not to forget."

The weather is quite changeable now. One day, it is warm enough to perspire, and then we suddenly get cold rain a few days later, only to see the sun shining next through a break in the clouds in the crystal-clear sky. And all that can happen in a day.

Before the internet, I relied on weather forecasts on radio, TV or newspaper whenever there was going to be a sports day or school excursion, and I prayed anxiously for fine weather.

If a forecast said something like "localized showers," I would grab the phone and dial 177 for the latest weather updates, hoping for some miracle.

The phone pressed to my ear, I would listen intently to the voice saying, "As reported by the Japan Meteorological Agency ..."

I understand that the 177 service will be discontinued at the end of March next year because the number of callers are said to be plummeting—quite understandable in this day and age of smart phones telling people, "Rain clouds are approaching" and so on.

So many things change with the passage of time. Perhaps because of that, a poem by Mariko Kasai makes me smile. It goes, "The weather forecast may change/ But he says he won't postpone our date/ I want to be with him."

That sort of feeling is shared by men and women alike.

—The Asahi Shimbun, Oct. 9

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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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