Real Winter

Hi again,

Now that winter is nearly over (hopefully), I can finally tell you what the infamous Aomori winter is like. Winter here is a big deal for everyone, even those that come from cold snowy areas. I, coming from sunny California, experienced the largest change in climate out of everyone else here (except maybe the new Hawaiian guy, although he's coming from Pennsylvania).

Basically, we can mark winter as the time when frozen water falls from the sky. Here in Aomori, that time period is 5 months long, from mid-November to mid-April.

For those of you who don't know already, Aomori is recognized as the snowiest large city (with population greater than 200,000) in the entire world. Aomori is situated so that storm clouds blow in from the North and the West. Mountain ranges in the south and east contain the clouds and allow them to dump all their moisture in the western and central regions. Aomori City averages about 300 inches of snow a year (25 feet, or 7.5 meters), and the worst parts of winter see days of endless snowfall and sub-zero temperatures. Being able to walk outside and not see snow falling is a rarity to be enjoyed. There are several ALTs from Michigan, and even they are amazed by the amount of snow here.

The local past-time during winter is an activity less for fun and more for function: 雪かき. Yukikaki means "snow clearing", and it's every bit a part of the culture around here. After a big storm, residents flow out of their houses with shovels, plows, and sleds to remove all the white junk from their driveways, cars, and roads. The stuff piles up quickly (sometimes 2 feet in a day), so it all needs to be relocated, or else the entire city shuts down. Snow plows run a tight schedule, and hardly a day goes by without seeing a plow working outside your house, rolling noisily down the highway, or refueling at the gas station.

The sidewalk on the way to school. The walkable path is about a foot wide.

Since the snowfall is absurdly abundant, people run out of places to put all the snow after a while. In the neighborhoods, empty lots are used for storing removed snow. Eventually, these become huge mounds that resemble landfills. Out along the main highway, the only place to put the snow is in mounds along the sidewalk. Eventually, these mounds overflow onto the highway and start consuming car lanes in the process. These lanes need to be cleared somehow.

Here is where the craziest snow operation I have ever seen takes place. The city has several enormous industrial-grade snow blowers. They are 2 stories tall and can clear snow mounds up to 8 feet high. Behind them, dump trucks line up for kilometers and wait their turn to be filled. The snow blowers progress slowly forward and eat up all the snow in the obstructed lanes, leaving shear walls of snow on the sidewalks. The filled dump trucks, I'm assuming, then head to the ocean to get rid of their load. It all happens like a glorious symphony, and it's a captivating spectacle.

Giant snowblower (minus dump trucks. This was a rural section of highway)

With the snow comes some inherent dangers. Obviously, you need to be outfitted to handle the cold and the wind. Sometimes, that means you need to cover every inch on your body to be comfortable. None of the locals wear ski goggles, but it feels necessary.

My standard winter outfit. Others may find it excessive, but I think it's entirely justified.

Safety is also a factor. Other than the risk of slipping on ice and breaking something, there is a particularly large risk involving roofs. Firstly, when the snow accumulates, the weight of all the snow can make your roof collapse. To prevent this from happening, lots of people go out onto their roof periodically to remove the snow. Every year, many old people die by falling off their roofs. Another danger involving roofs is having the packed snow slip off onto a passerby's head. The maintenance man at one of my schools also once warned me about snow on tree branches. Once the snow melts and refreezes, it's a genuinely hard and heavy hazard, tipped by the slightest gust of wind. Here, they call it 屋根雪 (yaneyuki, lit. "roof snow") or 落雪 (rakusetsu, or "falling snow/small avalanche"), but I like to call it 天罰 (tenbatsu, or "divine punishment"). One of the teachers had a car roof crushed by snow tumbling off the gym. The pressure of a tsunami of snow caved in the wall of another teacher's home, breaking windows of the neighbor's house along the way.

屋根雪 at it's worst. You wouldn't want this to land on you, icicle shrapnel and all.

The snow here is very troublesome and dangerous at times, but there are good points as well. The first is that local young people can enjoy the many nearby ski resorts. The snow that falls is usually dry and fluffy like cotton candy, so powder skiers and powder boarders love this area, especially the legendary Hakkoda mountain range. (see previous blog post for my trip to Hakkoda)

Personally, I enjoy cross country skiing a bit more because it emphasizes balance, rhythm, and full-body strength over recklessness and expensive equipment/lift tickets. The local favorite park, Gappo Park, offers free cross country ski rentals for the community to use, so I like to go at least once a month. The powdery fluffy snow isn't great for cross country, so I usually wait for the snow to melt and refreeze so I can get some speed. The best part is that you can ski on a beach, with swans in the water and everything!

Another great thing about the snow is that, somehow, in an unexplainable way, it makes everything more beautiful. White dusted trees and roofs with fluffy blankets on top are the essence of winter beauty, even if it's so cold outside that you need goggles to see them.

That's all I've got for winter in Aomori! Here's hoping that by the next blog post, spring will have arrived!