Fun with Japanese: The Language of Weather

Ah, what a lovely backdrop, too bad it's just a picture.

Welcome back gang. We've had a lot of variety in our weather lately it seems. Not that long ago, at least in my neck of the woods, we were getting snow practically every other week, and this past weekend it's been up in the 60's and 70's. Maybe the groundhog didn't see his shadow this year. However you paint it, I am loving this weather. Though it may not yet be nice enough to go swimming in bodies of water more exposed to the elements than Section 9's indoor pool, there's still plenty of other stuff to do, such as batting around words and phrases in anime that have to do with weather. So let's turn the news to the weather girl, and see what she has for us. Who knows when this nice weather might disappear.

Daisuke: If I were in a real snowscape,
my feet would be soooo friggen cold right now.

雪が降った。
ゆきがふった。
Yuki ga futta.

I don't like snow very much. It's nice when it's falling but then you have to drive in it, and walk around in it and worry about icy patches and shovel it. But it was a reality for this part of the U.S.A. up until a week ago. But to the point. A lot of the time in anime where you see snow, they will use the above phrase or a variant of it to indicate probably unnecessarily, that snow is falling or has fallen. Unless of course their pointing it out to another character who hasn't looked out the window yet. Yuki is the word for snow while the verb furu is a general weather-related verb that indicates the skies are dispensing precipitation. Normally, if the speaker is outside, they will be very cold and/or wet, obviously, except in specific circumstances, as when we're talking about dreams or alternate realities, like this one from a later episode of D.N. Angel, in which Daisuke's been having dreams about a snowscape he painted, and then suddenly found himself trapped in it. Well, at least he doesn't have to deal with the elements like it was a real scenario. In that case, those pajamas of his wouldn't be enough.

With a normal character, it'd be easy to tell her to suck it up,
but all of these character know better than to tempt
Lina's wrath and a potential casting of the Dragon Slave.

寒い
さむい
Samui

This adjective is often used to express the fact that a character or the environs are cold. Naturally, it will also often be used around the same time that winter is in play, but anytime where the temperature can drop to below normally comfortable temperatures is a potential place for its use. You will probably hear it more often from characters that are unabashed complainers. Most taciturn samurai types may register that the temperature has dropped, but they probably won't whine about it. Your a lot more likely to hear it in comedies, and from characters who have a low tolerance for discomfort. Once again, like Lina Inverse, who in this scene in Slayers Try, is being much more vocal about her suffering than everyone else

Most awesome set of goggles ever!
 I want a pair like those!

晴れ
はれ
Hare

This is the kind of weather we really want around here. The sun is shining, clouds are minimal at best, and hopefully the temperature is going to start moving in an upward fashion. Tenki ga ii, guys, (that means the weather is good), and the skies are "clear." You'll hear hare less from folks who are actually in a conversation and more from the local weather report, but it will slip in on occasion. A more traditional usage of it can be seen in the episode that introduces Ed, in the series, Cowboy Bebop when she's sitting out in in the sun while listening to the weather and net diving. I sure hope she brought some sunscreen. Never mind the rock showers, I can only wonder what that gate accident did to the Earth's ozone layer in this universe.

It really is raining in this shot people,
just look close enough and you'll see the streaks from the water.

雨
あめ
Ame

This is a funny word. Not to be confused with the word 飴（あめ, ame）which is pronounced the same way but uses a different kanji and means candy instead of rain. This little noun can be used interchangeably with the verb introduced in the above paragraph about fallen snow to indicate the falling of rain. Depending on the climate the characters currently occupy, you'll hear about it more or less often than you will snow (unless in the desert) but however things roll, it's probably the most common you will hear in general. This is because rain is often used as a catalyst to get two prospective love birds (or character who think they're love birds) together under one umbrella. This happens in this scene from the series Irresponsible Captain Tylor. Though the rain is simulated and Tylor and the character he's with are on the holodeck of a spaceship, it still seems pretty real to them.

This kid must be a pretty powerful goddess
if she can accidentally summon typhoons.

台風は来る。
たいふうはくる。
Taifuu wa kuru.

There are very few weather phenomena that will capture a character's fear and imagination quite like a typhoon, or to most American readers, a hurricane. If someone tells you one of these puppies is headed your way, most folks are very likely to pay attention and get to cover. However, imagine the guilt a person might have if they created one of these destructive behemoths completely by accident? This is exactly what happens in the first episode of the series Kamichu, in which the protagonist, a young teenager named Yurie, woke up one day and realized she had become a Shinto goddess, and in the process of trying to figure out what her powers were, she accidentally set one of these monsters loose. It's unrealistic as all get out, but that's not what we watch anime for, is it? ^^

And that's the lineup, once again language junkies, until next time, keep those dictionaries handy, and have fun!

Images taken from Cowboy Bebop, D.N. Angel, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG, Irresponsible Captain Tylor, Kamichu and Slayers Try.

Share this post