Learn Hardcore Japanese: kuni ni yotte kisetu no kanzikata ha tigau kamo siremasen ga, doko demo haru ha hito no kibun ni ii eikyou ga aru you ni omoimasu. - The way seasons feel may differ by country, but it seems to me that spring has a good influence on people’s moods everywhere.

国で
- Focuses on the place where something happens.
- 国で季節の感じ方が違う would sound more like “In each country, the way seasons are felt is different.”
- Grammatically possible, but it loses the clear “depends on” / “varies by” nuance.
国にとって
- Means “for (from the standpoint of) a country”.
- For example: 日本にとって、春は大事な季節です。
  = “For Japan, spring is an important season.”
- This talks about something being important/beneficial/harmful for that country, not variation between countries.

So in this sentence, 国によって is the most natural because we are explicitly talking about how things vary from country to country.

What exactly does 季節の感じ方 mean, and how does 感じ方 work grammatically?

季節の感じ方 breaks down as:

季節 – seasons
感じる – to feel, to sense
感じ方 – way of feeling, way of sensing
季節の感じ方 – “the way (people) feel the seasons / how seasons are experienced”

Grammatically, 感じ方 is:

verb stem (感じ)
- 方 (read かた)
This pattern verb stem + 方 means “the way of doing [verb]”.

Examples:

食べ方 – way of eating / how to eat
書き方 – way of writing / how to write
考え方 – way of thinking

So 季節の感じ方 is a noun phrase:

Literally: “the way of feeling seasons”
Natural English: “how people feel the seasons / how people experience seasons.”

Compare with similar forms:

季節の感じ – “the feeling of the season(s)”
季節を感じること – literally “the act/fact of feeling the seasons”

感じ方 focuses specifically on the manner / style / way something is felt, which is exactly what we want here.

Why is it 季節の感じ方は違う and not 季節の感じ方が違う? What is the role of は here?

Both 季節の感じ方は違う and 季節の感じ方が違う are grammatically possible, but the nuance is different.

は marks the topic (“as for ~”, “talking about ~”).
が marks the subject more neutrally and also tends to emphasize or introduce that subject.

In context:

季節の感じ方は違うかもしれませんが、…
– “The way seasons are felt may be different (from country to country), but …”
Here, the speaker is setting up 季節の感じ方 as the topic of a general statement they’re about to contrast with the second half of the sentence.

If you said:

季節の感じ方が違うかもしれませんが、…
It would still be understandable but sounds a bit more like you’re pointing out or presenting the fact that “the way seasons are felt is what’s different.”

Using は here matches the overall flow:

As for how seasons are felt, that might differ depending on the country,
but spring has a good influence on people’s mood anywhere.

So は is used to topic-ize 季節の感じ方 and smoothly lead into the contrast introduced by が (“but”).

How does かもしれません work here, and how is it different from かもしれない?

かもしれません expresses possibility or uncertainty, similar to “might / may / could (be)” in English.

Structure:

plain form of verb/adjective + かもしれません (polite)
違うかもしれません
= “(It) might be different.”

Differences:

かもしれません – polite (ます‑form)
かもしれない – casual (dictionary form)

Same meaning; just different politeness levels.

In this sentence:

違うかもしれませんが、…
– “(They) might be different, but …”

The speaker is softening what they say:

They acknowledge variation (“might be different”)
but still want to state a general idea in the second half.

In casual speech, the sentence would naturally become:

違うかもしれないけど、…

So the main difference is politeness/register, not meaning.

What is the が doing after しれません? Is it the subject marker or does it mean “but”?

In 違うかもしれませんが、…, the が is not a subject marker; it’s a conjunction meaning “but / although / however”.

Clause A + が、Clause B
= “Clause A, but Clause B.”

So:

国によって季節の感じ方は違うかもしれませんが、どこでも春は…
= “The way seasons are felt may differ depending on the country, but spring, anywhere, seems to have a good influence on people’s mood.”

Here, が:

Connects the first observation (possible differences)
With the contrasting second observation (spring’s generally positive effect).

In spoken, less formal Japanese, you often hear:

…かもしれないけど、…

が and けど both work as “but” here; が is a bit more formal/written-sounding.

What does どこでも mean here, and how is it different from どこにでも or どこも?

どこでも is どこ (“where”) + でも, and in this kind of positive sentence it means:

“anywhere / wherever (you go)”
“no matter where”

So どこでも春は… = “Wherever it is, spring …” / “Anywhere, spring …”

Differences from similar forms:

どこでも
- General “anywhere / wherever”.
- Often used broadly: どこでも春は… (Anywhere, spring …), どこでもドア (Anywhere Door).
どこにでも
- Literally “to/in anywhere” – it carries the location particle に explicitly.
- Often used when the verb strongly expects に:
  - どこにでも行ける。 – “(You) can go anywhere.”
In this sentence, どこでも春は… already clearly means “no matter where (you are)”; どこにでも春は… would sound a bit clunky.
どこも
- With a negative, it means “nowhere”:
  - どこも行きません。 – “I’m not going anywhere.”
- With a positive, it means “everywhere / all places”, but has a slightly different nuance and doesn’t fit as smoothly here.

So どこでも春は… is the natural way to say “anywhere / wherever you go, as for spring…”

Why is it 人の気分にいい影響がある and not 人の気分をいい影響がある? What is に doing here?

In 人の気分にいい影響がある, the に marks the target or recipient of the effect.

Literal structure:

人の気分 – people’s mood
に – to / on (target)
いい影響 – good influence
がある – there is / exists / (something) has

So it literally means:

“A good influence exists on people’s mood.”
Natural English: “(Spring) has a good influence on people’s mood.”

Why に, not を?

を usually marks a direct object that is directly acted upon.
に often marks:
- the target of an effect, change, or feeling:
  - 体に悪い – bad for the body
  - 目にいい – good for the eyes
  - 子どもに人気がある – popular with children

Similarly, 気分にいい影響がある follows that pattern:

X に (いい/悪い) 影響がある
– There is a good/bad influence on X.

So に here indicates the thing being affected by the influence.

What is the pattern 影響がある and how is it different from 影響する or 影響を与える?

All three express the idea of “to influence / to have an effect on”, but they differ in structure and nuance.

影響がある
- Literally: “there is an influence”
- Pattern:
  - X にいい影響がある – There is a good influence on X.
- Fairly neutral and common in everyday language.
- Structure in the sentence:
  - 春は人の気分にいい影響がある
    – “Spring has a good influence on people’s mood.”
影響する (verb)
- Pattern:
  - X は Y に影響する – X influences Y.
- Slightly more formal / written.
- You could say:
  - 春は人の気分に影響します。
    – “Spring affects people’s mood.”
影響を与える (verb phrase)
- Literally: “to give influence”
- Pattern:
  - X は Y に (いい/悪い) 影響を与える – X gives Y a (good/bad) influence.
- Tends to sound quite formal or literary.

In this sentence, 影響がある keeps the tone polite but not stiff, and it pairs naturally with いい:

いい影響がある = “have a good influence / positive effect.”

What is the nuance of ～ように思います here compared to just ～と思います?

Both ～ように思います and ～と思います express “I think that ~”, but ～ように思います is softer and more tentative.

～と思います
- Direct: “I think (that) ~.”
- Common, neutral.
～ように思います
- Literally: “I think (that it seems) ~.”
- Feels like “It seems to me that ~ / I feel like ~”.
- Adds a layer of humility and subjectivity, implying “this is just how it seems to me,” rather than a firm assertion.

In the sentence:

どこでも春は人の気分にいい影響があるように思います。
– “I feel like spring has a good influence on people’s mood anywhere.”
– Or: “It seems to me that, anywhere, spring has a good effect on people’s mood.”

This fits well after the earlier かもしれません (“might be”), keeping the tone:

Careful,
Non-absolute,
Polite and modest.

If you said:

…いい影響があると思います。
It becomes a bit more direct:
– “I think spring has a good influence on people’s mood anywhere.”

Still polite, but less hedged than ように思います.

How would this sentence change in casual spoken Japanese?

A natural casual version would:

Use かもしれない instead of かもしれません
Replace が with けど
Use 思う instead of 思います
Possibly drop some politeness and slightly loosen the phrasing

For example:

国によって季節の感じ方は違うかもしれないけど、どこでも春は人の気分にいい影響があるように思う。

Even more casual / conversational:

国によって季節の感じ方は違うかもしれないけど、どこでも春って人の気分にいい影響がある気がする。

Notes:

Adding って after 春 (春って) is a very common casual way to mark the topic.
気がする is another casual, soft way to say “I feel like / it feels to me that”.

All of these keep the same basic meaning, but move from polite/written style to everyday conversational style.