Schools in Osaka are letting children out early today, while schools in Kyoto are still in session.

A warning over the loud speaker system here in Kyoto just came on a few minutes ago warning people that there will be heavy rain and high winds later on around 7pm as the typhoon begins to hit Kyoto.

Right now, current conditions in Kyoto are calm with little to no wind. It’s kinda like the calm before the storm.

One Saturday during hanami, it rained all night Friday then stopped around 8:30am. The sun gradually came out and warmed up enough we could take our jackets off and play in short-sleeved shirts. But that all changed around 1pm. From that point, the air cooled and the clouds began coming in. Soon it began to rain; only a short shower. Then it got sunny again and warmed up. Mind you, it wasn’t as warm as it was earlier in the day. Then clouds came in again and the air cooled. This time, it got chilly. The wind also picked up. Soon it began to rain. But then something surprising happened. It began to hail. Shortly after that, would you believe, it got sunny again!

At this time, it was about 3pm. So the sun was starting to get lower on the horizon. Many people doing their cherry blossom viewing began to go home around 1pm when the first rain came. Those who stayed for the second heavier shower soon began leaving for home in round 2. But then came round 3.

The third wave of clouds brought even colder air and this time ice and snow. It first started sleeting and then snowed. At this point, we finally decided to pack up because it didn’t look like it would clear up this time around.

Thirty minutes later, as we were walking across the bridge to the station, the sun came out again. But then came round 4! By that time, many of us were either in our cars or on the train back home!

Weekend weather during spring is not always like this, but it is unpredictable most on Saturday for some reason. Sundays are a little less dramatic.

As for this weekend, the current forecast is saying sunny Friday night, cloudy Saturday morning.

Rain began to fall yesterday afternoon and continued throughout most of the day today tapering off around 2pm. Temperatures at that time were warm, around 12 degrees Celsius. Shortly thereafter, the winds began to pick up and strong cold air started blowing in.

Tonight, temperatures will be down near freezing as well as tomorrow night. But this shouldn’t deter the already budding cherry blossoms. It might confuse us, but there should be some cherry blossoms bloomed on trees around the Kansai region by this coming weekend.

Trees won’t be mankai, fully-bloomed, but anyone venturing out to parks, shrines or any other place where cherry blossoms are growing will have a good time viewing the beginning of spring Japanese style.

I will make another cherry blossom assessment later at the beginning of this next week starting Monday.

If traveling in Japan, be prepared for cold snowy or rainy weather.

Snowy February

People in the Kansai region will see temperatures dropping below freezing for the next few days along with snow in Osaka and Kyoto. Temperatures tonight will be 23F/-5C and just above freezing throughout the day tomorrow.