Snow in Kawasaki
To commemorate our snow chaos here I shall make a photo blog today instead of a regular post 
I know this isn’t a big deal considering the snow storms in the US or what we get in parts of Germany every year and it’s also ridiculous from norther Japan point of view where they have literally several meters of snow every year. However, for the Kanto region the current snow levels are stuff never seen before and our snow depths around here break all records since those are being taken.
Some of the pictures are also pretty beautiful, whilst some show the traffic chaos upon us 
The pictures at night were all taken last night on the 14th when I returned from work at around 19:00 local time. Usually I go by bicycle from the station to my place (3km). If the weather is really bad I go by bus and sometimes, when it’s just too bad or too late I go by taxi.
The intention last night was to go by taxi as well, but there were hundreds of people waiting for the bus and dozens for a taxi and so I walked.
The daylight pictures are from today, the 15th and were taken on the way to a DIY shop. I wanted to buy a snow shovel after all, but wasn’t in the least surprised when a guy from the mostly empty shop told me they were sold out I bought a small broom but when I returned to my place I caught my neighbor snow shoveling and borrowed his shovel and have now dug a way to the road.
On the way to the DIY shop I saw two stuck cars and their owners desperately shoveling them free so as to not block the roads. It would have been a bit mean to take pics of their plight, so I did not
I feel really sorry for those people who got stuck in a 30-40 km traffic jam around Shizuoka on the Tomei highway (that is the closest highway also to my home – it’s one of the major traffic lines of Japan and connects Tokyo and Nagoya), they had to spend the nights in their cars on the road because nothing was moving anymore…
Now it’s massively thawing again but it will take quite some time for all the stuff to melt and on coming Wednesday we might get even more snow…
So – here are the pics from the new yukiguni (snowland – usually northern Japan is called the yukiguni).
Parked bikes at the station
Parked bicycles at the station
Along the way
Sugar icing
A mini park along the way
Where is the temple?
Ah, there!
Bamboo in snow
Abandoned crossing
Lonely stairs
My home street
Morning after
Side street
Winter it is…
Danger from above
For the full set of pics and higher resolution – I’ve put them also on Flickr.
And my back hurts from shoveling!
