Grammar detail: Japanese dates

As with the Western calendar, the days of the week in Japanese are based on traditional elements of the environment. In some cases, the same exact elements are used for the same days of the week, as with

にちようび

日曜日

, which literally means 'sun-day', and refers to the Western Sunday, and

げつようび

月曜日

which means 'moon-day', and refers to Monday.

Each day of the week follows the same three kanji pattern - the first kanji indicates the day, the second is

よう

曜

meaning 'day of the week', and then

ひ

日

meaning 'day' (together read as ようび).

As with the days, the months are also very regular - just a number, followed by 月 (read as がつ), meaning month.

In general the days of the month are formed by combining the

くんよ

訓読

み (Japanese reading, such as みっつ for 三つ) of a number with 日, in this case read as か. However, there are some irregularities which just need to be memorized. For example, the first of the month and the 20th both have special terms; certain days use readings for the number kanji which are slightly different to the normal counting forms (eg むいか for the 6th).

Japanese has set expressions to refer to useful dates - note that some of these use unusual readings for the kanji they are written with.

Japan is generally considered to have the same four seasons as in all northern latitudes - spring, summer, autumn and winter. Sometimes the short period between spring and summer (from late May to early June) known as the

つゆ

梅雨

, the 'rainy season', is considered a fifth season.

As a side note, 梅雨 is a good example of

あ

当

て

じ

字

'ateji', the idea of assigning a common word as the phonetic reading of (etymologically) unrelated kanji. 梅 means 'plum' (the fruit), and is typically read うめ; 雨 means 'rain' and is read あめ. Put together, they convey the idea of 'plum-sized rain', which is quite an evocative way to describe the heavy rain of the つゆ! See the full article on あてじ for more information.