Do you know about “Cicadas”, which color Japanese summers with their chorus of various chirpingcries?
In summer, if you look at a tree in a forest or park, you can usually easily find a cicada.
If you visit Japan in the summer, you are sure to hear the sound of cicadas.
Because of their familiarity and how many and varied cicadas are, it is pleasant to watch children running around with bug nets trying to catch them.
For Japanese, however, the cicada is a special insect that is evocative of landscapes and memories. One sound of a cicada may cause us to imagine the scorching midday, while another makes us look back on a memory of a beautiful sunset.
The cicada also teaches about transience and sadness.
They live in the soil for seven years, and after maturing and coming to the surface die in a week. Their lives and chirping cries are such a hallmark of Japanese aesthetics as to have been regularly included in Haiku from the Edo period.
At first, the sound of cicadas may just seem just noise, but it is something more- it is a sound representative of various thoughts and memories. Why not visit Japan in the summer and make your own special memories with the sound of cicadas?