Lemon was the answer to summer.

Why do people crave lemons so much?

I have been thinking about it for a long time.
...That is a lie; before I knew it, my house was filled with lemons.

A cute tin of lemon cookies.
Lemon-scented hand cream and body wipes.
Noodle soup with lemon.
And a lemon-patterned dress and a lemon-patterned eco-bag...

There were plenty more in the house...

When did I buy all of these?
Well, some of them were gifts.

When I go outside, supermarkets, convenience stores, and vending machines are all having a lemon festival.
Lemon sours, lemon water, lemon-flavored snacks, lemon curry, and soup.
Lemon fragrances, lemon-patterned goods...
It feels like the whole world gets dyed in lemon when summer arrives.

I think this way of developing a single ingredient into everything is a uniquely Japanese sight. It is something you rarely see overseas.

Cherry blossoms in spring. Hydrangeas in early summer, and lemons in summer.
The whole town gets dyed in a single theme.

If you call it a commercial strategy, perhaps it is.
But I feel it is not just a simple strategy to sell things.
Just as haiku has seasonal words, Japanese people have long had a sensibility of thoroughly appreciating 'things that only exist in this season.'
Perhaps the order is not that products sell, but that products are aligning themselves with the Japanese sensibility.

Being carried along by a commercial strategy... I think it is actually a happy thing to know that and go along with it anyway.
Giving them as gifts might also stem from our good-natured culture of sharing, wanting the other person to experience that refreshing 🍋 feeling too.

Come to think of it, the lemon is a mysterious fruit.
Even though it is so sour that your face would twist if you bit into it as is, for some reason, it is so beloved.
Perhaps that refreshing yellow color and scent make us think 'I'm glad to be alive' amidst the damp heat.

I may not have an answer, but today, too, I think I will wear my lemon-patterned dress, apply my lemon hand cream, and eat somen noodles with lemon-infused soup.

My summer, it seems, is lemon-colored.