Japan's Hardy Snow Country Now Faces a Test of Time

New York Times ^ | 1/9/06 | Norimitsu Onishi

[saquin]

TSUNAN, Japan, Jan. 7 - After clambering out a second-story window on Saturday, Kimie Kuwahara, 80, stood atop the 10-foot-high wall of snow surrounding her house. She surveyed this region called the snow country - the starkly white mountain range that spread out in the distance behind her, the record snowfall that had blanketed all but the triangle-shaped roofs in her neighborhood.

Pushing a plowlike shovel with both hands, Ms. Kuwahara was busy clearing the fresh powder to a recessed pile several feet away under which, she swore, lay a pond with carp. Her husband, Naoji, also 80, had climbed a ladder onto the roof, where he deftly plied his shovel to send chunks tumbling down.

"It's a never-ending job!" said Ms. Kuwahara, who had left a "village on the other side of the mountain" to come to this town as a bride a half-century ago. "After you've cleared the snow, the place is covered with snow again two days later."

Smiling from ear to ear, Ms. Kuwahara, who maintained that snow-clearing had kept her the "fittest person in the neighborhood," said cheerfully: "Ah! The snow country! What can you do?"

The snow country, ensconced between the Sea of Japan and the Japanese Alps, is one of the world's snowiest regions and typically lies under a dozen feet of snow for several months a year. But the coldest winter in decades has brought record snowfalls to the region in recent weeks.

[skinkinthegrass]

We used to joke that it was faster to go over a house than around it.

ha! ha! ...depending how old you are (skilled in) skiing and/or ski-doo (jump-over.)

[Vigilanteman]

I spent a winter in Sakata on the Sea of Japan, 1977-78. No, the snow wasn't quite this extreme, but take a train 30 km or so inland and you could see the piles heaped up perhaps half the size of those shown in the pictures.

Part of the reason the snow piles up is the pattern of thawing and freezing continuously recyles moisture into the atmosphere. On some of the main streets of Sakata, nozzles at periodic intervals sprayed water to keep the roads cleared. They stopped when the weather was well below freezing, but the timing wasn't always perfect. There would be nights we would go home on sheets of ice.

[gaijin]

maybe the young ones now won't so easily be able to get to the local pachinko-ya san. For awhile, I guess...

[Eric in the Ozarks]

We owned an eight horsepower two-stage snowblower when we lived in Minnesota. It was powerful enough to throw the snow on my next door neighbor's roof.