Snow


Welome to the land of snow. Really. You can`t see anything but snow. There`s snow on buildings, on the ground, in the air, on the trees, on you, on the cars, basically, theres snow on everything.


So, as you can probably tell, it has started snowing here. A lot. It started about 2 weeks ago, (or was it three?) Early December was the first snow fall. I remember it clearly. Friday the 5th. I got up, and saw it was snowing lightly outside. It was really nice! When it touched the floor it stayed a little then melted not long after. I was excited and got up to dance around outside in the cold and in my pyjamas. Then, I had to go to work, so off I went and the snow was gone. BUT later that day, around 11:30 or 12ish it started snowing again. Really snowing. As in, staying on the ground. Everything gradually became white. And it didn`t stop. No really, it didnt stop for the rest of the weekend. That snow kept coming. I ended up having the office lady and specialist teacher help me brush off the foot of snow that was on my car so I could go home. I was supposed to go to Sanjo on the Saturday and they kept telling me no, it would be too dangerous to go. They were right. The 15 minute drive home from school that day turned into a 30 minute drive going 20k and trying to stick to the tracks the cars had made before me, and that was a difficult task in itself, let alone trying to see through the windscreen. But, that didn`t deter me from going to the ALT Christmas Party in the city that night. Ended up being an hour late (it took an hour to get there rather than the half an hour it would normally take) and I missed most of the delicious dinner (and there was no dessert!) but did enjoy the White Elephant game. I ended up coming home with two Japanese style cups (one with a P and one with an S for some reason, but they are not really salt and pepper cups), a small bottle of Bailey`s, and some sachets of hot chocolate. Pretty good for 10 bucks I thought.


My friend stayed at my house that night, which was lucky because she was able to take me to the station in the morning so I could get to Sanjo. Driving that night made me realise I would not be able to drive to Sanjo the next day. And so I couldn`t. In fact, even taking a train was a dilema and exhausting. When we woke up the next day, there was a mound in front of my driveway that was a hip high depth, and hard too. It was all the snow that had fallen from the roof, once we climbed over that to get to her car, the snow there, although soft, was still over our knees. Basically, even once we had started to dig out her car, we realised there would be no going anywhere for a while. Luckily, soon the snow plow came and cleared a path so we only had to get her car out. It took about an hour to get to the station, and we saw lots of accidents along the way, but we got there, and I got there just in time to take the train, which ended up being delayed and sitting at the station for an extra ten minutes anyway. But, I was on my way, feeling tired and cold and warming up in the train. I was very overwhelmed though. If it werent for her I probably would have never left my house that day, just digging her car out was a shock at how much snow there was in not even 24 hours. I was beginning to feel like I couldn`t do this. Was this normal? Wasn`t it supposed to snow a little, melt, snow a little again, slowly melt, then eventually build up to this? Well, I don`t know if thats what`s supposed to happen anymore, but it`s definately what didn`t happen. Instead we got about half a meter in one night.


I`m glad I went to Sanjo though and didn`t cancel my plans. I was able to catch up with friends and although stuck at a random train station for over an hour on the way to get there, I did get there, and enjoyed the company. Also, the snow wasn`t as much in Sanjo. The next day too, the roads were clear there. I began to think, yes, I can do this, I can live in this snow. It`s managable. When I got back to Joetsu, however, my beautiful and wonderful neighbour picked me up and whilst I had been away, she even dug out my driveway. Shes so awesome. And I am so thankful for that, because I was exhausted and still overwhelmed from that weekend of snow.


However it didn`t end there. The next morning I got up and went to work, no digging neccessary, but still the driving was a bit slippery in some parts. It wasn`t too bad though. Just as I thought it was ok, the guy in front of me swerved on a bit of ice and crashed into the barriers on the side. I stopped, shocked, and got out to see if he was ok. He too got out of his car and had blood pouring out of his head. I asked if he was ok, but was still on the other side of the road. The lady in the car behind me had stopped to so I signaled to her and asked her to get out and help the man too, as my limited Japanese probably wasn`t the best thing to deal with. She did get out, but as she did, he went back into his car, and promptly drove off. Still standing there shocked, I didn`t know what to do. What an idiot! What if he had lost conciousness just a bit furthur up the road and crashed into another car or worse, hit one of my students walking to school? I don`t know what happened to him, but I got to school safely, only to probably scare my teachers as I burst into tears about my happenings that morning and just every emotion from the weekend came pouring out. But, everyone was really nice about it and supported me.


Anyway, after that, I started to learn how to deal with the snow that was there. It didn`t snow for a week after that, giving it a bit of time to settle and melt a tiny bit (honestly it`d take a summer`s day to melt what was left behind) but the roads no longer had ice and snow, and all that was left was the boarders around the roads and the fields of snow.


The next weekend though, it snowed again. A lot. Well, probably the same amount as last weekend. I was in Kariwa for Musical Rehearsal and the roads there were not very well maintained and the gym at the school we were at was suuuper cold, but it was a good weekend. The company was what took your mind off the imiment drive back home in the snow. It ended up not being too bad on the way home luckily, until we got to Takada back in Joetsu. Obviously it had snowed a lot there, and no plows had been through so it was pretty bad. But again, I got home and my wonderful neighbour had done not only mine, but our other two neighbour`s drive ways also as we had all been away that weekend. He`s a legend.


On the Monday, I was late to school. 40 minutes late. The snow had kept coming on Sunday night and I had to dig out then drive the hour to school. But I got there eventually. However, Wednesday was the worst. It snowed all night Tuesday, leaving a bit to dig in the morning which I had decided to do before my shower, but after, as I was ready to leave, was as if I hadn`t done any. -_-` It`s a never ending cycle. Anyway, only being 10 minutes late for school this time, it was a very long drive there. And it kept snowing all day. Really. When it was time for me to go home, I couldn`t see any of the cars except for the windscreen wipers which they keep up. I don`t know the real reason why they do this, but I can think of a few good ones now, one of which is so that you can see that there is a car under that pile of snow. Anyway, the Principal was out there and helped get cars uncovered and off I went. I was supposed to go to a party that night in Arai, close to Nakago, but it had been canceled because of weather, but I asked my friend if I could stay at her`s anyway because I really didn`t fancy driving in the current weather of snow (which I`m glad I decided because apparently the traffic was really bad), to then have to dig out my drive way to get my car in, to then dig my car out to get to school, and then to drive another hour to get to the same area (which I`m not usually in two days in a row anyway), and I`m glad I did decide to stay because the road I would have to take in the morning to get to school was apparently closed. Let`s just hope I can get home on that road tonight otherwise it`s going to be another long drive home. The snow isn`t as bad today, it`s mainly wind gusts that spit the snow up into the air, however, there is still snow coming down now. Sigh...




Writing this now, it doesn`feel like I`ve only been in snow for two weeks. (Is that the kids I can see skiing on the baseball field outside the staffroom window now?????) (Yes it is.) All I can say is, it`s going to be a long winter if I`m driving in this weather all the time. The rest of the snow situation isn`t that bad, digging, whist tiring, is kind of relaxing too, and (I am really tempted to go out there and watch them, but it`s snowing and cold and I`d rather join them, but I don`t have skis) sorry for the distraction. Snow can be pretty too, the icicles on the trees, the buildings with snow on the roofs, and sitting in the hot onsen as it snows is the best feeling. I think I can get used to it, and I think I`ll be fine now. I just don`t like driving in snow. And how cold my house is. I`m afriad of my power bill this month lol.




Annnnd the Nurse just came to tell me there was more snow where I live than here yesterday. Yikes. Please, stop snowing so I can go home, dig, and then not worry about it for a few days.