It always amused me to see the Japanese tendency to comform manifest itself even at the beach. Below a group of girls assemble in different colors, yet each with the same swimsuit pattern as her friends. Of course the guys weren't much better at expressing individuality. Even laying out seemed to be a coordinated group effort. Summer days and nights were a serenade of animal sounds, from the whine of a swarm of cicadas to the chorus of thousands of rice paddy frogs.
Rice grows quickly in the intense heat.