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Writing a letter in Japanese
A formal Japanese letter has a fixed frame. It opens with 拝啓 and closes with 敬具, the pair matched like "Dear" and "Yours sincerely." After 拝啓 comes a 時候の挨拶, a seasonal greeting chosen for the month — 春暖の候, "in this season of spring warmth," belongs to March and April — then an inquiry after the reader's health, the body, and a closing wish. Handwriting still carries weight. A handwritten letter, especially on good 便箋, says the writer took time, and many people keep them. Some conventions are strict: in a letter to a superior, a 追伸 (P.S.) can seem careless, and it is avoided altogether in letters of condolence. The grammar of this lesson is the grammar of the written page — だに, はさておき, に相違ない, ではあるまいか, を禁じ得ない — read aloud and answered in Kansai speech.