This week’s FUN JAPAN WORD is a seasonal word : “Fuyu” which means “winter” in Japanese.

You can write “Fuyu” this way in hiragana, the syllabic japanese alphabet : ふゆ, but you can also write it with a kanji, a chinese character like this : 冬

In old Japan, winter was separated in three periods :

- Early winter 初冬 with big snow falls and icy cold.

- Mid winter 仲冬 a period between January 5th and January 20th

- Late winter 晩冬, where the start to be a little less cold before the arrival of spring.

For Japanese people, winter is synonym to snow and icy wind but also warm feelings to share with you family like gathering and eat a “nabe”, hot pot together, sit under the kotatsu, a small table equipped with an heater or grill rice cakes for example.

Kids also love to build snowmen !

Speaking about snow, there’s plenty of place where you can go skiing in Japan ! 

Do you want to discover Japan in winter?