Snow

When we first decided to move here, I read that Iwamizawa averaged 500 inches of snow each winter.  I couldn’t imagine 500 inches of snow falling in a year!  Now I can.

                           Ted at the front door of our apartment building.

It snows every day. Sometimes it stops for a few hours, then snows some more.  Sometimes the snow is fine, sometimes it comes down in huge flakes.

Big machines push it and some of it gets hauled away somewhere else.

Smaller machines move it too.

The snow doesn’t seem to bother anybody here.  Yesterday I saw two university students in boots, tights, and shorts.  Twice I’ve seen an elderly woman walking down the street with her cane that has a spike in the end.  I saw an elderly man pulling a little sled with his groceries away from the Haruki yesterday.

In the entryway of our apartment building are lots of snow shovels for people to use.

Every morning people have to dig their cars out again.

Yesterday Ted and I went cross country skiing at the university.  I hadn’t skied in a long time and I had forgotten how fun it could be.

                                                           Ted

Remember that song from the Sound of Music – Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes…..