Spring??

Last Friday was Setsubun. Mid-way between the shortest day and the spring equinox, it is supposed to mark the beginning of spring. This was how the day began...

Hmm, not really my idea of spring. Actually, the weather was worse the day before. When I took K to pre-school on Thursday, it was snowing heavily and everything was just, well, white. I couldn't really see the road. Or the traffic lights. Or other cars. On the way, at 9am, the roadside thermometer read minus 4, and even on the way back at 3pm it was still minus 1. Brr...

We had more snow through the day and overnight, but on Friday it soon brightened up. Unusually T had a little nap in the morning so I showed K the sledge I bought secretly the other day and we headed out into the garden...

I pulled him round a bit, and he had a little slide down the tiny slope. It doesn't sound very impressive but he loved it. He tried pulling me but that didn't work out, although I did go down the slope :-)

As well as playing in the snow, we did a couple of little Setsubun things too. An oni (demon) came round, but K was there to throw beans at it and scare it away. H came home just 10 minutes afterwards and K was quite disappointed that he'd missed it. K wasn't at all scared; he told me it was 'just a fake one', although he didn't connect it to H's arrival minutes later :-)

Another tradition is to eat sushi rolls, facing a lucky direction and without speaking. K and his classmates made them at pre-school on Thursday and I, with another mum, went along to help. It was fun to help the children make their sushi rolls, and also to spend the whole day there and experience K's school life. T was with me too of course; he's quite well-known at K's school now and the kids all enjoyed playing with him at lunchtime :-)

Anyway, the snow has all gone again now, but there is more predicted for the next few days. I think we'll have to wait a bit longer for spring yet...

Victims of the snow

Our house is about a kilometre from the sea and, until 30-odd years ago, most of the land between here and the coast was filled with pine trees. Nowadays all that remains is a narrow strip, between a major road and the sea, which stretches about 10 kilometres along the coast.

When we drove along there the other day, to go to the Sea and Life Museum, it was quite shocking to see the damage that all the snow we've had recently caused to these trees.


The weight of the snow ripped branches off a lot of the trees, but what really surprised me was how many trees had simply been snapped in half, with the entire top part of the tree missing.

I suppose the weight of the snow bowed the smaller trees right over (as in the far right of the photo below) and a lot of them never recovered.

Severely damaged trees along that roadside have been marked with pink tape, so I suppose they will be chopped down before long. It's very sad...

The last snow post of the season (I hope...)

I don't write anything for ages and then, when I do, it's about snow again. Can you tell that there's not a lot going on here at the moment?

As forecast, we had quite a lot of snow again over the last weekend in January (as pictured above), and I was glad that I decided to stay the night in Tottori instead of trying to get there in time for work on Sunday morning. As well as avoiding being late, I also got to enjoy a peaceful evening to myself in a comfortable hotel, paid for by someone else. Definitely no complaints there...

Now though, one week later, we are virtually snow-free! Here's the last little bit that was still hanging around on our lawn this afternoon...


... and looking out over the fields you can see that there's not much there either:

Of course, there are still huge mounds of snow (or 'snow mountains' as K calls them) in carparks and other places where the snow was cleared, but places that just had their natural quota of the stuff are pretty much clear now.

This change in the weather coincided exactly with the old Japanese calendar. Setsubun, the day dividing the seasons, was on February 3rd and on the 4th, the official first day of spring, it was warm and sunny and the snow was melting. Today was rather overcast but until now we've had really lovely weather and it truly feels like spring may just be around the corner...

Yet another post about snow...

In short, there's still a fair bit of it about. After close to a metre of snow at New Year, we got down to this year's least-amount-of-snow-on-the-ground-so-far on the 14th:


But over that weekend it returned to this...

Again, it gradually started to disappear, only to be topped up again last weekend too. Luckily it hasn't really inconvenienced us too much; H has been taking an earlier bus to work everyday (but still managed to be late once), and I am getting braver and braver about driving in it. My reluctance to drive with even the slightest bit of snow on the ground is often laughed at, and I almost kept K home from school one day, but in the end it wasn't really a problem at all. The weather gods have been kind to me though, keeping Wednesdays, the day I go to university, virtually snow-free (on the roads that is). If the weather is really bad I can get there by train, but it's a bit of a pain: 20 minute walk to the station, 12 minute train ride, change trains, another 40 minute train ride and then a 15 minute bus ride, plus time for all those connections; not ideal when class starts at 8.30! I've got one more class next week, and then term ends; keep your fingers crossed for me...

There have been some lovely bright days though and, now that the snow doesn't come up to his neck, K has been enjoying playing in it. Making looping tracks through the snow is one favourite...

... and another is very gentle sledging down the little slope in our garden, using a multi-purpose seat/spinning/ who-knows-what toy that H's brother gave him for Christmas:

We had a bit more snow just the other day and, guess what? More is predicted for the weekend. I'm doing more kids' interviews on Sunday, this time in Tottori, which originally was supposed to entail somehow getting to the mainline train station before 7am... However, due to the potential snow, the company has asked me (and will pay for me) to go the day before and stay overnight. Is it really bad that I'm actually quite looking forward to a night in a hotel, all by myself, with no little people climbing over me with picture books in their hands at 5am, and with several consecutive meals eaten in peace? Maybe the snow is not such a bad thing after all...

Still snowy

We haven't had any more snow since the 1st, but it's still causing problems. Snow ploughs have been out clearing the roads; the fact that H had never seen one before shows you how unusual that is! Ploughed roads are now clear enough to drive on easily, but there's one slight snag; the snow ploughs create big banks of snow at the sides of the roads, making already narrow roads even narrower. The road in front of our house now poses no problems at all for a single car, but when 2 meet someone has to reverse a long way or everyone leaps out with their shovels and starts digging out a passing place...


Yesterday I ventured out on foot to our second-nearest supermarket. We weren't in desperate need of supplies but it was H's last day off work and I realised that if I didn't go then I would have to go today or tomorrow - with K...

It was a good chance to see what was going on too. Next to the supermarket is one of the biggest roads around here, with 2 lanes each way. Traffic was moving easily, but again the road was significantly narrowed:

Smaller roads were clear just in the tyre tracks - 4 tracks if you were lucky, 3 tracks on narrower roads and here, where a car had been abandoned, it went down to just 2:

The very smallest roads though were still pretty much impassable. Believe it or not, this next one is actually usually used by cars; look very closely and you'll see a car parked at the end of it:

Today was the first working day of the year for a lot of people, including H. He usually goes to work by bus but the buses still weren't running today, due I suppose to the narrowed roads. So poor old H set off on foot, a distance of 5 or 6 kilometres. He returned home tonight with stories of downed electric cables and a collapsed car port, a blister or two and, of course, photographic evidence of his adventure. Here's the route he would normally take if walking into town...

... and here's the less snowy option he chose today. This is the road his bus would have taken too, if it had been running...

Even in the centre of the city, where the traffic was moving steadily, it was still tough for pedestrians. The pavements were pretty deep in snow and crossing the road meant navigating your way over huge mounds of snow at the edges of the road:

Apparently the buses still won't be running tomorrow, although rubbish collection will be. H's planning to try the train tomorrow; by the time he walks to the station, waits for the train and then walks from the station to his office, it won't really save him any time, but hopefully it'll give his feet a bit of a rest...

Happy New Year!

No sign of the garden wall, the compost bin or the patio

It may only be January 2nd, but already it's a year that people around here will remember - the year of the snow. It started to snow on the night of the 30th and continued throughout New Year's Eve Day, with biting winds sending the snow in horizontal sheets. By the morning of New Year's Day the wind had dropped and the snow lay deep and crisp and even.

Our bedroom window faces the direction the wind was blowing from, so the balcony was filled with snow up to the height of my waist.


K and the car demonstrating the depth of the snow

The previous night the electricity had gone off for a minute or so, and when I got up briefly with K at 5.30 I noticed that it was off again. We all slept in until about 9 o'clock, and we were still without power. Like a lot of the newer houses around here, our house relies entirely on electricity for heating, hot water and cooking as well as lighting and appliances. Luckily we do have a single table-top gas ring so I was able to make hot drinks for our breakfast.

An important part of New Year's Day morning is reading your New Year cards. The post office holds them all back until the big day and then delivers them all early in the morning on New Year's Day, hiring extra part-time workers to help deal with it all. This year though - nothing. I'm hoping they might come tomorrow...

H dug out a little path, just wide enough for us to walk out to the road. He didn't dig right down to ground level and even then the snow was deeper than K's waist. I guessed the total amount of snow to be close to K's height and the news today reports that there was indeed about 90cm.

In front of our house on New Year's Day

The plan was to spend New Year's Day at H's parents' house. They had a power cut too, but they also have one old-style kerosene heater so we headed over there once H had dug us out, leaving candles and torches on stand-by for our return. Their house is only a few minutes walk away, but we visited the local shrine on the way too.

Japanese people traditionally visit a shrine at the New Year, either just after midnight on New Year's Eve or in the first day or two of the year. The priest, a relative of H's, told us that he had only had about 20 people show up the previous night, while a man with a digger (also a relative) dug out the road for everyone.


At the shrine H and I each bought a fortune for the year and both got 'small luck' - better than plain old 'luck' and 'bottom-of-the-barrel luck', but still lagging behind 'medium' and 'big'. Oh well. There are also 'bad luck' fortunes but our local shrine, not wishing to disappoint, buys the boxes of fortunes which don't contain bad luck at all. We tied the slips of paper to trees around the shrine and went on our way again.

A stone lantern at the shrine

Announcements on the public address system told us that 28,000 homes in the city were without power, due to a fallen pylon. Today H found a picture of it on the news - eek!


At H's parents' we all stayed in the living room with the one heater, and for once I was glad of the traditional New Year's food, o-sechi. Made (or bought..) ahead of time so that no-one needs to cook over New Year, it isn't really my favourite but at least it was all ready to eat without the aid of any electricity...


After lunch the power came back on and H's mum rang round to see how everyone was doing. H's younger brother was planning to come over on his way back from a trip to Kyushu, but on hearing what it was like here he wisely decided to go straight home. We were all relieved when we heard that he'd got home safely, especially as the news was reporting a thousand cars stuck on the main road from Yonago to Tottori. A thousand!

A not-very-tropical palm tree

By late afternoon the falling snow was turning to light rain, which continued overnight. By morning a lot of snow had melted, but there's still a lot out there too. All the snow has gone from the car, but the roof is slightly dented from the weight. Overhead cables are hanging dangerously low, again due to the weight of the snow, and lots of trees have lost branches.

In front of our house this morning

The airport is closed, buses and branch-line trains are not running yet and H's cousin reports a queue for taxis at the main station 60 people long. H goes back to work on the 4th (Tuesday), so we're hoping the buses will be running again by then. Like most people we stocked up on food before the holidays, since a lot of supermarkets are closed until tomorrow or Tuesday, so I suppose we'll just carry on our hermit lifestyle for a few more days...

Broken branches at the shrine

Snowy days

As I wrote in the last post, it was quite a snowy New Year here. We had strong winds and snow overnight on the 30th and throughout the day on New Year's Eve. During a lull in the weather we took K outside for his first proper play in the snow. It was lovely and powdery, perfect for throwing around, and dry enough to sit down in without getting all soggy...

After more wind and snow though the night, New Year's Day was still and peaceful, if grey and cold!

I love the way that the wind left the snow on the sides of the trees and torii (shrine gate), rather than on the top.


January 2nd was bright and sunny, and the snow quickly began to melt. There was still time to get out and play in it again though...

...and build a rather lopsided snowman.

K has been keeping an eye on him from the living room for the last few days...

...but I'm sad to report that he is now just a couple of green sticks lying on the grass.

Walking in a winter wonderland

Last Thursday the first snow of the season fell here in town, but it was just a few flakes which pretty much melted right away. On Friday morning, we woke up to this light dusting...



...and the water in the stone bowl in the garden was frozen:

Throughout the day it alternated between melting snow under blue skies, and sudden snow flurries with biting winds. By Saturday morning we had a proper blanket of snow covering the ground:

It continued to snow on and off throughout the day. I went to a very cold end-of-year lunch party at the community centre for our neighbourhood's equivalent of the WI, glad that I could go there on foot. I'm a big wimp when it comes to driving in the snow but by late afternoon the roads were completely clear again so I went off to yoga.


Sunday brought more snow which didn't bother to settle, and Monday was snow-free. Most of what has fallen here has melted away now. This morning we had something more unusual than snow in these parts - frost, complete with crunchy grass and frozen puddles. The weather forecast is predicting milder weather for the forseeable future, so no white Christmas this year I think...