Ep 28. Let it Snow...In Japan

Today's thrilling episode is brought to you by Inter-nets. Why hold nets by yourself when you can hold them by yourselves.
And now, it is time to present another actually thrilling Adventure in the Ausentatious! When last we left our hero, another week loomed large. But what's this? Creeping slowly and steadily from the north comes the scourge of the homeland: Snowfall. Riding their cloud ships, they descended with deliberate disparity for a day, then ceased their presence as quickly and quietly as they had come. A hush settled over the town; had their attention been diverted by devilry else where? Would they leave the hamlet in peace? Alas, it was not to be, for upon the eve of week's end, they returned en masse to stage a punishing and pure assault upon our abodes! Insanity and abject pandemonium erupted. Transit ceased, sensation stopped, the world stood as though at absolute zero! Would life ever return to normal? Only a day (and a night) remained to find out.



So, just like most of he US, we here in Japan got snow

snow

SNOW!!!!

Tokyo got more snow this past weekend than it has in 46 years, and we in the rest of Kanto got a taste of it too. How bad was it? While most was barely above my (admittedly not too tall) feet, parts went up to my knees. Because it was so deep, and because so many of our students and staff live a train ride away, we closed school early. Now, I have never exactly been opposed to snow days, but nor have I been too overly fond of them. They happened (yay) or they didn't (boo) and we moved on. But I was really bummed about having classes canceled. I love my classes, and I love teaching, and gosh darn it if I didn't feel a tad betrayed by the weather! So, what is one-who-loves-snow to do to clear away the gloom?

That's right, make a snow angel, and walk around taking pictures. By the time I made the angel, I had changed into less formal clothes. However, I might have started enjoying the snow a bit before that. A grown up guy making a snow angel on the sidewalk, however, was obviously a surprise to those around me, at least judging by the number of stares that I got doing it. But who cares, I HAD SNOW! And boy was it fun. However, duty called so I quickly grocery shopped, and I am glad that I did. I was one of the last people that they let in before the mall closed. That's right, it had snowed so much that the mall which is open on most national holidays closed early. It was insane, but it made for some nice pictures:

One thing that I noticed was that everyone was using an umbrella. Now, this may be because I am from the Pacific northwest and regard umbrellas like most people in Japan regard a maple-bacon doughnut, but I found the practice to be rather absurd. I mean, just look at them

Snow is to be enjoyed, and this whole use of the umbrella defeated the purpose. Having said that, there was definitely more snow than expected, and there was some issues with the trains.

While the tracks weren't completely covered, they were covered enough in between to make it a problem. I'm actually lucky that I went when I did, because by the time I was standing on the tracks, all of the trains had all but stopped, and shortly after I got off of the tracks, they closed down the crossing for the night. I guess they didn't want anyone going anywhere. Now, some more fun pictures:

This was a street where I was passed by a car that had obviously been out for a while. The layer of snow on top was about four inches thick, and reminded me of a toupee. It certainly brought mirth to my lips to think of snow as little more than a toupee for cars.

After a while of walking around, I met a co-worker for dinner. I had an enjoyable time, and afterwards I decided to do something kinda stupid. Considering that this was the most snow in 46 years, that it probably wouldn't last another night unsullied, and as such all of this was probably a once in a lifetime experience for me, I decided to walk out to the bridge and take a picture of the arakawa river. As one can imagine, this is not a route that many have walked. At the beginning, it was all quite easy, since a lot of people had been walking in this area. But once I got to a more residential area, things got more interesting.

A lot more interesting.

Normally, this is a walk that takes me less than half an hour to get to the bridge, making it rather short and sweet. However, it took me over half an hour to get this view

The last traffic light

And a further ten minutes to get this view

It was around this point that I realized what a silly thing that I had done. I had walked away from my apartment, and help would be decidedly difficult to get to me. I was the only person who knew where I was--though one of my co-workers had a general idea--and all in the name of a picture. And let me tell you, dear reader. it was worth it.

Notice, if you will, the state of the guard rail from the first to the second image. The first was taken at the start of the bridge, well sheltered by a grove. By the point of the second, however, they bridge lay completely exposed to the battering elements. As I trudged through knee deep snow, each step harder than the one before, I was struck by the force of the winds during the storm. While they are normally unnoticeable, that night they melded with the snow to form a complex stinging sensation that quite possibly took away the top layer of skin on my face. But half way over the bridge, and quite exhausted, I found my prize: the arakawa river:

 Surrounded with snow and high upon its banks, the river flowed steadily on underneath. Having found my prize, I turned around to discover that I was not alone after all.

Some poor soul was returning home from work and, judging by his odd weaving he was trying to follow my foot steps. Seeing me coming back, he took the sensible option and started walking on the road, since apparently that was more appealing than creating his own path. So, I did the same.

I would just like to say here that most, if not all, of the pictures on this blog have been taken with my phone. As such, the quality isn't always the best. In this case, I think that the blurriness was due to a combination of many factors.

This is just such a cool picture. I left my glasses at home for this trek, since they kept fogging over anyway, and as such I actually missed a lot of what made this picture special. All that I wanted to show was the stair case what I considered going up, but decided against since that would not just be tempting fate, but actively spitting in its face. Note that the tracks are not my old ones, but someone elses. I found out coming back that I had been following the bike path on the way there. You can see my tracks next to the road on the left. Anyway, I eventually made it back to my apartment, but not before snapping one more shot:

The next day I wandered around for a little bit and took some more pictures. What struck me was how everyone was shoveling. On TV--the Olympics are absurdly hard to find over here, by the way--and in the streets everyone was shoveling. Which was really cool, and also kind of funny to see men in suits coming home and just shoveling. All in all, it was a cool (no pun intended) experience that I will never forget. And now, pictures of the next day.

Someone made a snowman.

I took this, so not actually from a car advertisement.

I can still see my tracks.

One last glimpse at a lonely mountain.

Well, this has been another Adventure in the Austentatious. If you liked it, tell your friends; if you hated it, tell your enemies; and if you didn't care either way, then tell everybody. And now, good night.