大暑

大暑. The hottest fortnight of the year, from around the twenty-third of July, and the last of the twenty-four.

You started this book in August, in a season called 立秋 — the start of autumn, arriving in weather exactly like this. 立秋 is two weeks away. The year has come round.

The first chapter said this book was mostly words for things you already knew but had no name for. You have them now. And in a fortnight the heat will overstay its season again, and there will be a word for that too, and you will be able to read it.

ふfuうuりriんn風鈴a wind bell

A small glass or iron bell hung at a window, with a paper tongue that catches the air. It rings when there is a breeze, which in late July means it rings rarely and you notice every time.

The point is not decoration and not really sound. It is information: the bell tells you air is moving, in a month when that is the thing you most want to know. It is a cooling device that works entirely on attention.

Which is a fair note to end a year on. The twenty-four seasons do the same job — they don't change the weather, they just make you notice it. You have spent a year learning to read a calendar built by people who thought paying attention to small things was worth naming twenty-four times over.

立秋 is next. Then it all starts again.

How it fits together

AはBがCです

One last pattern, and it is the one that makes Japanese feel like Japanese rather than English rearranged.

なつはひがながいです — as for summer, the days are long. The topic is summer; the subject is the days. Two markers, two jobs, in one sentence. English can only manage this with a subordinate clause.

This is the shape of an enormous number of ordinary Japanese sentences, and it is where は and が finally stop feeling arbitrary — they are doing visibly different work, right next to each other.

everything, at once

Read this slowly and you will find you need no help with it:

きょねんのなつ、はなびをみました。とてもきれいでした。らいねんもいっしょにみましょう。

*Last summer, we watched the fireworks. They were very beautiful. Let's watch them together again next year too.* Past tense from last chapter, an adjective from chapter twenty-two, ましょう from chapter sixteen, を from chapter ten, の from chapter five. Nothing in it is new.

Words

はhaなnaびbi花火fireworks
はな, flower, from chapter six — and び, fire. Flower-fire.
せseみmi蝉cicada
the むし whose こえ you read about in September, from the other side of the year
かkaきkiごgoおoりriかき氷shaved ice
なnaつtsuやyaすsuみmi夏休みthe summer holiday
やすみ, rest — the same word as おやすみ, goodnight, from chapter two
いiちchiねneんn一年one year

Things you can say today

はhaなnaびbiをoみmiにniいiきkiまmaしょshoうulet's go and see the fireworksを, に, ます-stem, ましょう — four chapters' grammar in one invitation
らraいiしゅshuうuはhaりriっしゅsshuうuでdeすsunext week is the start of autumnwhere you came in
ぜzeんnぶbuよyoめmeまmaしshiたtaI read all of itchapter eighteen said よめます — I can read it. This is the same sentence in the past tense you learned last chapter. It is now true.

Nothing to review right now.

This chapter teaches no new characters — you have them all. Anything still fading will come back round here after a day or two away.