紅葉情報 (kouyou jouhou)

It's a sweetly rhyming phrase, and it's been popping up all over television and internet news these days. It's even being thrown around offices, staffrooms, and classrooms. The buzz in noticeable. Yet, it's not some international event or major issue that's surfaced -- it's merely a seasonal addiction that comes with autumn.

Kouyou, while literally meaning "crimson leaves," is the term given nore generally to the time period when the leaves are changing colors in the fall. It's a time to say goodbye to the old season and welcome (or dread) the onset of winter. It's a time when people wax nostalgic, getting that faraway look in their eyes as they hold a mug of hot drink and sigh, "this year's kouyou is really beautiful, isn't it..."

[It also mirrors the cherry-blossom-madness that will come half a year from now, in the spring.]

Right now, people are flocking to the areas most dense with deciduous foliage. There, they can observe the striking red-orange of momiji (Japanese maple) against the pure yellow of the ichou (ginkgo), and all the shades in-between. At scenic viewpoints, they can breathe in the coming of winter and revel in nature's metaphors.

If you're curious, here are some kouyou jouhou (kouyou information) charts I found on the web today -- just a few of hundreds, probably. You can see that this is an obsession for them -- not a hobby. I would guess it's the product of a culture's singular devotion to nature (on the whole -- whale and dolphin issues aside!) and chronic dependence on weather-talk.



via Walker plus (prob for nature lovers)



via weathernews



via Yahoo! weather

I hope I get to see some pretty kouyou this weekend!

(The links will all probably be dead after December.)