Погода: Окинава, декабрь

Regulars are specific that although this month falls squarely within the official rainy season, the reality here differs sharply from mainland Japan's version - it rarely rains all day, with sudden hard showers usually lasting only 30 to 60 minutes before clearing to light rain or sun again. Our row backs that warm, genuinely wet read, 26.5C over 21.1C nights, with a substantial 250.8mm of rain across 14.1 days and humidity at 83 percent. Regulars are consistent the exact start of the rainy season shifts year to year, sometimes arriving as early as late April, other years holding off until early June, so checking closer to the trip beats trusting a fixed date. Beach plans stay genuinely workable with flexibility built in around the showers. The sea sits at a warm 24.4C. The record: 9 hours of sun, a 28.2 kph wind and AQI 61.

November is the month after the season here. Typhoons run June to October and are rare by now, the crowds have thinned, and the beaches are officially closed - which regulars are quick to clarify means the lifeguards have gone home, not that the water is roped off. Swimming is still fine on the right day: the sea column reads 25.4C against air of 24.7C over 19C nights. Two things temper it. The wind averages 34.3 kph as the northeast monsoon sets in, so the sheltered side of an island is worth choosing. And it is not a dry month - 125.2mm across 11.6 days, with only 7.3 hours of sun. The record: humidity 70 percent and AQI 47.

September is the peak of the typhoon season here - the elevated risk runs from about mid-July - and regulars are clear that whether one lands on your week is luck rather than planning. What they can tell you is the shape: a typhoon means hard wind and rain for roughly two days, and is often followed by perfectly clear weather. The useful advice is about booking, not about packing: keep the flights flexible, because cancellations are refunded or rebooked, and do not arrange an onward flight home for the day after you leave the island. October carries better odds. Our row: 30.6C over 25C, 192.3mm across 17.4 days, a 29.9 kph wind and a 29.9C sea.

August is the peak of Okinawa's typhoon season, and the forum treats it as a gamble rather than a hazard. The arithmetic they give: around thirty typhoons form over the north-west Pacific in a year and seven or eight of them pass over the prefecture, most in the July-to-October stretch. You get three to five days of warning once one forms, and everything here is built for them, with residents keeping a couple of days of food in - but a bad one can sit on the islands for the better part of a week, and one recent storm closed Naha airport for five days. The rest of the month is hot, humid and wet: our row gives 185.9mm across 14.8 days at 82 percent humidity. The record: 31.4C days that feel like 37C, 26C nights and a 28.7C sea.