The 7 November is named rittou (立冬) in Japanese and literally means the first day of winter and today there was a real chill in the air and frost on the ground.
Rittou is the 20th special day based on the 24 sekki from the old Chinese calendar that divides the solar year into 24 equal sections and gives some days names to mark the changes in the season.
Yesterday was mostly cloudy with some snow falling at altitude so this morning we took this time lapse of the sunrise over Mt. Yotei to reveal the light dusting of snow it received.
There are two more sekki that follow rittou, on 22 November there is “shōsetsu” (小雪) that translates as small snow and on 7 December there is “taisetsu” (大雪) that translates as large snow. More of the latter for the 2012 season please…
Mt.Yotei sunrise from Kabayama, 8 November 2011
