August

The summer heat peaks in August and it’s also the holiday and festival season. The rice starts to grow tall in the fields, and tomatoes and cucumbers ripen in the allotments of the Miyama residents. Fishing is popular in this season and grilled sweetfish (Ayu) is on the menu along with Nagashi soumen, which is a thin noodle that is soaked in cool water and then put in a bamboo water slide. You have to try and fish out the noodles with chopsticks as they pass by on the bamboo slide.
After Obon in mid-August (a festival in which the Japanese honour their ancestors with music and a special dance), you can feel the weather begin to cool as autumn starts to knock on the door.