# #15 Rainy season, rural Gunma, and not fleeing too far from home Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/queers-with-accents-7747041/15-rainy-season-rural-gunma-and-not-fleeing-too-far-from-home Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/queers-with-accents-7747041/15-rainy-season-rural-gunma-and-not-fleeing-too-far-from-home.md Podcast: [Queers with Accents](https://stenobird.com/podcast/queers-with-accents-7747041) Published: 2026-06-23T22:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/queerswithaccents/episodes/15-Rainy-season--rural-Gunma--and-not-fleeing-too-far-from-home-e3kpvck Audio file: https://anchor.fm/s/113ab0284/podcast/play/121486164/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-5-15%2F426151188-44100-2-b1d6d904ab7f4.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/queers-with-accents-7747041/episodes/15-rainy-season-rural-gunma-and-not-fleeing-too-far-from-home Duration seconds: 2974 ## Resource Kinoko is one of my ESL students and the author of I Have Two Partners: Living the Polyamorous Life , a ground-breaking book in Japanese about polyamory, as well as the organizer of Poly Lounge , a series of events for polyamorous and questioning people and allies. We publish archived videos of our lessons as a podcast. Today, our conversation covered the following topics: Kinoko's runny nose and the rainy season being her least favorite season – and the strange gap in English: we have "favorite" but no direct antonym like "hated" (we say "least favorite" or "I hate"). Why the rainy season is discouraging: humidity, rain, feeling lazy to go out – while Masaki actually prefers it over the lethal summer heat (especially in Gunma, one of the hottest areas in Japan, reaching 43°C). Gunma's extreme climate: boiling summers, freezing winters, and famously strong winds that can blow you away (Mary Poppins style). Kinoko's one year living in rural Gunma after quitting her company job, staying in a friend's house near the mountains, using a wood stove, and living next to a dairy farm. Masaki's confession: growing up in the Kanto region, he thought the area west of Gunma was just ocean – because TV weather forecasts only show Kanto with a thick contour, graying out everything else. (He now knows Niigata and the Chugoku region exist.) The word "archipelago" (Japanese archipelago has over 6,000 islands) vs. "rettō" (islands in a line). Kinoko's dream: organizing Poly Lounge events in all 47 prefectures of Japan – she's already done over 10 locations. The dichotomy between city and countryside: big cities aren't always better for queer people; moving somewhere in the vicinity of your hometown can be a good option. Vocabula… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/queers-with-accents-7747041/episodes/15-rainy-season-rural-gunma-and-not-fleeing-too-far-from-home/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/queers-with-accents-7747041/15-rainy-season-rural-gunma-and-not-fleeing-too-far-from-home.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.