The other day, we received some persimmons from a friend of ours. I was looking at the orange, or rather, persimmon color while muttering to myself, “It’s the harvest season…”. It is said that there is a front crop and a back crop of persimmons, and this year seems to be a front crop, with lots of persimmons. I went to Nara yesterday and saw many persimmon trees with abundant fruits.

The scenery of temples and persimmon trees in Nara really go well together.

It is not Shiki Masaoka’s famous haiku, “If you eat a persimmon, the bell will ring, Horyu-ji Temple. Although it is my imagination, I believe that even Shiki may have unintentionally traced the scenery and had his haiku overflowing from his mouth.

Perhaps this is the reason why there are many reports of bears visiting homes in search of persimmons in some areas this year. I am sure people in those areas are worried about bears. It is still scary to encounter a bear, isn’t it?

Come to think of it, I remember that my niece who accompanied me on a hiking trip last year was walking with me while ringing a bear bell on her cell phone, which she found on YouTube.

Back to persimmons, there is a weather proverb associated with persimmons, “A year with many persimmon fruits is a year of intense cold.

Since persimmon fruits are in the early stages of fruiting during the rainy season, it seems that in years when there is a lot of rain and wind during the rainy season, more fruits fall and there are fewer fruits during the fall harvest season, and in years when there is little rain and wind during the rainy season, fewer fruits fall and more fruits remain in the fall. Then, it means that a year with little rainfall in the rainy season may be a year with cooler temperatures in the fall, or a year with a large difference in temperature between cold and warm.

The truth of what this proverb means seems to be unclear, but I wanted to check the truth of this saying for the past few years.

So I looked up “weather proverbs” only for winter to see if there were any other proverbs about the weather. Here are some of them.

If a bird nests too high, it snows too much.

It is hard to believe that birds would build their nests so low that they would be buried in snow, but if birds can sense that there will be heavy snow and build their nests higher, it would mean that they can make medium- to long-term forecasts, not short-term forecasts like tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. It is hard to believe, but research data has shown that praying mantis predict the height of snow accumulation and change the height of their eggs. If the mechanism is clarified in the future, it may become possible to forecast the mid-term forecast of human society with more accuracy, lol. Personally, I have a bit of hope for that.

“Geese are migratory birds that live in warmer areas.

Geese are migratory birds that live in warm regions. Therefore, when geese form a procession to the south in autumn and winter, it seems to imply that a strong cold spell is approaching in the north, but it is difficult to observe geese in my area, so it may be difficult to confirm this….

The saying goes, “If the ducks come early, it snows early.”

but it is also difficult to confirm ducks in my area. The reason for this is that ducks are migratory birds, which lay eggs and raise their young in the cold northern regions in the summer and come to Japan in the winter. The ducks land in Japan around the end of September and gradually move south, but the earlier the season, the earlier the cold air arrives and the earlier the first snow may be seen.

Years with long daikon radish roots are cold.

As you know, the white part of daikon is the root. They grow underground. Therefore, there seems to be a close relationship between the growth of daikon and the underground temperature. Generally, daikon grown in areas with low soil temperatures are thinner, while daikon grown in areas with high soil temperatures are thicker. And in general, the deeper underground, the more constant the temperature is. In cold years, radishes tend to grow deeper underground in search of heat, while in warmer years, they tend to grow thicker and shorter. Unfortunately, however, as far as daikon is concerned, the proverb refers to “results,” and unfortunately, it cannot be true of “prediction” or “forecast,” can it?

A good buckwheat crop means heavy snowfall.”

The plant buckwheat grows in cold regions in summer. In Japan, buckwheat is grown in cold regions where it is difficult for rice to grow, and has been cultivated as a staple food. If anything, a good buckwheat crop may be associated with a heavy snowfall, since buckwheat’s white flowers bloom in profusion as if covered with snow, so this may not even be true or false.

I have been trying to confirm the truth of this saying for a few years now, and I will try to remember it and be careful, but what worries me the most is that I might forget it. The most worrisome thing is that the person himself might forget….

I will try to remember to be very careful.