Rainy Season in Japan, from my experience (20+ years - has it been that long???) is not usually like it is this year. Usually, the rainy season where we live in Japan consists of days of rain/cloudy weather, then some nice weather, and then the pattern repeats, over and over for about 2 months.It's never really clear when it starts (experts always announce the start and end, according to some information, but I think they just randomly pick dates) or when it ends. I say this because we usually can have about one week of straight rain and cloud and then the mighty weather soothsayers pronounce the beginning of the season. Ditto for the ending, when after an equally nice period of weather a pronouncement of 'finished' occurs.This year there seems to be many more rainy days, and a lot more rain. There have been multiple deaths over the last few days due to flooding, mudslides, and other events due to the rainy weather.We have been lucky so far, and hopefully we should emerge from the rain with our homes and town intact; not so many other towns in Japan.Our thoughts are with those who've suffered during this season. We hope it will end soon. Happy, sunny thoughts.