Is spring the best season for JPs?

Although spring is undoubtfully the best season to visit Japan for tourists, in fact it might be the toughest one for fellow Japanese to go through with.

I am not talking about hay fever by which nearly half of Japanese are being annoyed every year.

I am talking about depression.

There is a statistics showing that quite a number of Japanese start suffering from or deteriorate their mental disorders during this lovely season.

Two possible reasons :

1.Change in surroundings

Both fiscal and school year starting from April in Japan, many Japanese do experience more or less some changes in their lives around this month, such as graduation & entrance of schools, transfer or promotion in jobs etc. Some may need to move remote places (possibly overseas!) with their families whereas others without families.

And as is often the case with Japanese, their "perfectionist temperament" tends to let themselves do the best to adjust themselves so as to fit into the new environment. If they fail to do so, then they start feeling terribly frustrated, followed by so-called "May depression" or melancholic depression.

Well, don't be manipulated by those mantras like "fresh start" or "new life" which can be seen everywhere in Japan of this month.

Just be yourself.

2.Climate and weather

From March to May, the fluctuation of temperature between day and night becomes largest throughout the year. As we all learnt in biology class, human body has a function called homeostasis which controls body temperature over outer environment. Wider the temperature range is, the more energy required for homeostasis.

In spring, as one can easily imagine, your body become physically tied up with this homeostasis thingy. If that's the case, how could your body afford to deal with mental stress on top of it?

Again, what you need to do in spring is just relax and not too "hustle".

That's my small advice.

There is a famous Haiku, or Japanese short poem consists of 17 letters by Buson Yosa :

春の海　ひねもすのたり　のたりかな

means "let us relax all day in front of spring sea"

Maybe he got to the point.