If someone asks me to describe Japanese culture in one word, the word that appears in my mind will be “season”. Why “season”? The story began when the Thai airline touched the ground in August two years ago.
　 Standing in Fukuoka airport, there was a girl with the tired face grabbing huge bags and walking to the bus. It was my third time in Japan, but this time, it was totally different. I came here to study, not for travelling anymore. I would spend my almost-ending teenage life and early adult period in this foreign country at least four years.
　 At that time, it was summer. I was first time in a dormitory located on the top of a mountain. At night, I always opened the window and listened to the singing crickets. I was born in one of the busiest cities in the world called Bangkok. So it is really hard for me to hear the wonderful summer songs like this. At the beginning, it was the very romantic moment of my summer in Japan, but soon after that I noticed that summer was more than just the amazing cricket songs. I could also wear summer too. After two or three weeks passed, I bought my own red yukata with yellow obi, Japanese sandals and a small Japanese handbag for the summer festival. I went to hanabi for the very first time. The lovely voices saying “irasshyaimase” and the thousands of times of bowing like you did something very special and valuable for them, were very charming. When you look around, you can see people got tans and sun-burns. It is easy to see that summer goes along well with the sea and beach. Then suddenly I heard the loud noise “Boom! Boom! Boom!” , the hundreds of colourful fireworks were incredibly stunning. Moreover, one hand holding a shaved-ice, another hand holding a small colourful uchiwa and watching hanabi while shaking our legs away from mosquitoes were the perfect theme of summer in my opinion. And after all, you can feel at that time that you were really in summer.
　 That time was also my first time to learn Japanese language. I started to study hiragana, katakana, and kanji. A third language didn't seem to be easy for an 18-year-old girl like me anymore. Even though it was tough, there were a lot of funny parts in Japanese language such as some Japanese words adapted from English. I was really impressed with the words “pasokon” which came from personal computer and “ma-ku-do-na-ru-do” which was the pronunciation when Japanese call McDonald's - the world's largest fast-food restaurant. Those words are very cute!! Another interesting part of Japanese language is its own beauty. Maybe all Japanese know this haiku saying “Furuikeya Kawazu tobikomu Mizuno oto” by Matsuo Basho, which means the sound that a frog makes when it jumps into an old pond. If we translate this poem into English, it will lose its own gorgeousness. I think learning language is not only for communicating with people, because the Japanese language is an extremely essential tool to view Japan and Japanese culture.
　 I also read various types of books from manga to philosophy. On the shelf in my apartment, there are more than 30 Japanese books. “Colourful” by Eto Mori is my favourite one. From this book, you can learn Japanese culture and society from the eyes of an unsuccessful Japanese boy that later on, learns that everything has an angel and devil sides, and sometimes things don't go like what they seem. This book helped me pass through the hardest moment of adapting myself to Japan and returning to who I am.
　 I enjoyed the feeling of summer atmosphere until few months passed - the thing I almost forgot but nature has never been forgotten - which was the changing of the new season.
　 I realized that the new season had come, not because I noticed that the weather was getting a little bit colder, but because I saw tons of new commercial advertisements on TV. When the season changed, there were great deals of new products limited for the new season. The soft puffy cake with kuri or Japanese chestnut with icing-topped looked so attractive to me. Moreover, my much-loved fish like salmon tasted extraordinarily nice in this season, too.
　 At that moment, owning to the short break of my University, I jumped on the ferry travelling to Kyoto - the capital city in the past Japan. After my feet touched the ground in Osaka, I looked around and saw that the people's clothes were already changed. From the pretty colourful dresses in the summer to the plain darker clothes that match with the red and yellow tones of the trees that covered all over the city. I stayed with my Japanese friend in Kyoto and she acted as a tour guide showing me around the city.
　 The sunset colour of leaves scattered on the grey stone ground leading me to one of the most famous sightseeing places in Kyoto called Kinkakuji. I bought a ticket and walked through the small street inside the fence. I was laughing and taking the pictures with my friends as I was walking along, when suddenly I was stunned. I saw the gorgeous gold building surrounded with the red, yellow, orange and brown trees serenely reflecting on the large beautiful mirror-liked lake. It was just like Heaven. I could not stop looking so that I almost forgot to take my memory into the film. There were countless places that I visited with my Japanese friend in Kyoto, all of them were very unique and amazing. In the evening, I participated in the traditional tea ceremony. There was no sound, only silence except for the noise from the tea pouring and the moving toward the tatami. The peaceful and calm feelings came over my mind. I watched the steam rising from the tea pot. My heart beat slowly. I took a deep leisurely breath and then my little brain started to work. I thought Kyoto was telling me the incredibly important part of Japan - which was the root of Japanese tree. The memories of Japanese history came through both my eyes via the journey to Kyoto. It was so fantastic. Talking about history, every time when the conversation changed to the topic of the World War, there was not a single word from any of my Japanese friends, just the deep sad pain in their eyes. Wounds are also another side of Japanese culture for me. The failures made this country grow strong, and the Japanese economic situation nowadays can prove this word very well. I appreciate Japanese spirits. Even though now they do not have swords on their waist anymore, but Japanese people are still real samurai.
　 The days passed so fast, not very long, I found out that the cold winds were blowing against my window. It was winter. The white frosty snow started to cover every single inch of the ground. The girl who came from the dreadfully hot country like me began to hibernate - by getting stuck in the warm room and doing nothing other than eating and sleeping. Therefore it was the season of watching movies for me because I had too much free time. This is the reason why I am addicted to Japanese movies and TV programs now.
　 The latest movie that I watched was “ima, ainiyukimasu”. It is one of my favourite movies presenting the love among family members and the meaning of life. In my opinion, due to the books, dramas and movies that I watched, I think these days a lot of Japanese people are getting lost in the society that moves like the river flows. They want a lot of money. They use brand name bags. They work hard until late at night. They get drunk with someone they call friends. But they go back to the empty home. A lot of people do not know where they are going everyday or what life means. I saw one TV program that talked about one Japanese girl who ran away from her house in the countryside and worked in a “host club” in the city. It was a real sad story. For this all, at first, I thought it was because they forgot their true Japanese hearts. But after New Year's festival in the university campus, my thinking changed. I saw old people teaching young foreigners and Japanese how to make mochi. Some taught us karuta, the traditional Japanese card game and kendama. Some gave us hot zoni which is the special soup for New Year. The hot soup warmed us from our mouths to our hearts. I thought that maybe they did not forget, but because they were trying so hard to follow the things they thought they missed, so they could not notice the beauty of trees on the street they were walking along like before. Actually, the trees were still there, but they just could not be easily seen anymore.
　 Because Beppu, where I have been living in, is very famous for natural hot-springs. It is not acceptable to miss the warm healthy bath in the freezing wintry weather. Over there, I found out a very interesting fact that Japanese people love taking baths. They spent a lot of time cleaning their bodies and scrubbing everywhere, and then I saw them get into the hot water and then showered with cold water and then hot water again and cold water again. It seemed like endless bath-taking for me. But I think it was also a very charming part of Japanese culture.
　 The cold freezing winds in winter were replaced with the cheerful songs from the colourful little birds in spring. It was the season of births. Everything came back to life. The warm tender sunshine melted down the white snow softly. Colourful flowers began to bloom. Also, the people around me started to change; they threw away their dark heavy weight clothes to the sweet light weight dresses. Not very long after spring started, there was the news that everyone was waiting for - the beginning of cheery-blossom or sukura bloom. The garden was painted with the romantic pink colour all over. You can see people drinking and dancing under the attractive pink trees. It looked like they were celebrating for the new season. When I looked around I could see smiles and laughs on people's faces. I truly love to sit under sakura trees watching the pink sakura storms bringing the happiness to people's lives. And, again the products changed into the picture of sakura everywhere.
　 “Kaze ni tomadou yowakina bokuﾉ” I sang a song called “tsunami” in karaoke with my friends. Or do you think I should sing “Sakura Sakura ima sakihokoruﾉ” by Moriyama Naotaro instead? Maybe yes, the sakura song is really matched with the sakura garden that time. Not only the products that changed into sakura images, but also the music. There were a lot of sakura songs, but I like this song the most because the meaning of the song suited the atmosphere at that time. In other words, sakura bloom was also the symbol of farewell. School graduations are mostly held in this sakura-blooming season, so another scene that we can see under sakura tree is graduated boys and girls writing friendship books or exchanging their school uniform buttons.
　 Last spring, I took my parents to travel in Tokyo. It was extremely busy there, and everyone seemed to walk non-stopping to somewhere. This city represents modern Japan with tall buildings, sassy fashions, high technologies and more. I think this is one of the fanciest cities in the world. Anyway, doesn't it sound like a very material city? I don't think so. On the day that I planned to go to Disney Land, I could not find the place to get Disney Bus. We got lost in Shinjyuku. I asked so many people but I was still confused because of the language and the complexity of the roads. The people there were very kind, and they tried so hard to tell me where to go. One of them took me to the bus stop and this really impressed me. People there planted flowers in my heart like the spring season.
　 In summer and winter, the temperatures are absolutely different in Japan. Not only the changing of temperatures means the changing of the seasons, but also a lot of different stories happen in each season which contain the very vital keys to Japan. Summer, fall, winter and spring are the words that mean a lot in Japanese culture. These four seasons turn over and over again, something begins, and something ends. But I believe that as long as we have seasons on the earth, these four seasons will go on continuously in Japanese culture and souls.