Most years, the month of June in England is associated with warm weather, strawberries and the Wimbledon Tennis tournament. It is a time of year when the days are long, kids play outside until eight in the evening and adults drink in beer gardens until the sun finally sets close to ten. In Japan the image of June could not be more different: rainy, humid, no public holidays, a period of waiting for summer to begin. In fact, students here have always told me that Japan has four, clearly distinct seasons, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. No one ever mentions the rainy season! But I love the rainy season. It is warm and not sunny. It is a time when I, with my pale white skin, can spend time in the garden without get sunburned.
June is a short month, thirty days. As in many languages , we have a rhyme in English to help us remember how many days in each month. There are several different versions, but I learned it like this:
Thirty days hath September,
April, June and November.
All the rest have thirty-one,
Excepting February alone,
Which has twenty-eight days clear
And twenty-nine in each leap year.
distinct 異なる
hath 'has'
excepting を除いて
leap year うるう年