After a really enjoyable Christmas at home I travelled back in my little village in the mountains last Saturday. Suffice to say it's rather cold here. People back home moan that the UK is cold, but if they had to get up in the morning and make their porridge in a kitchen that was -4C they'd soon change their tune. That or wake in the night to -7C.
When I got back last week I was rather bemused to find my toilet, shower and taps had all frozen, despite me turning the water off before I went back to the UK. Thankfully all is ok now except my washing machine, the pipe of which now leaks unless I turn it off after using it. Doh!
After several nights of waking up in the depths of the night shivering I cursed myself when it took a member of my eikaiwa on Tuesday to remind me I had a heater built into my aircon unit. After that little discovery I have now been sleeping rather well. Sod the electricity bill, I want my warm blood warm!
Showing posts with label winter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label winter. Show all posts
Saturday, 15 January 2011
X-Files greenhouses
Good grief I've been slack with the blogging! Things happened in December, really, I was just too preoccupied with heading home for Christmas to think about recording them. Ok, let's rack the memory a little. Photos will help.
Winter came in hard like a hammer towards the end of last year. The summer was hot and long and cold nights didn't start creeping in until the beginning of December. Autumn was short and sweet, unlike 2009. And even after that the majority of the days leading up to Christmas were bright and the sun warm.
The pic below is one in a row of greenhouses that I pass on my drive into the city. At night I drive back along this road (usually from the Karate dojo) and the greenhouses are lit up eerily, like something out of Mulder's dreams. Presumably the veggies inside are being given extra light/heat now that summer has faded. For ages I'd been telling myself I was going to get a picture or two, then one night I remembered my camera and stopped. This part of the village is rather isolated (like most of it, really) and no one was around. As I pulled over my headlights reflected in the eyes of tanuki (raccoon dog) as it foraged beside the road. I was half expecting to find it in the car when I got back in after taking the pic.
Winter came in hard like a hammer towards the end of last year. The summer was hot and long and cold nights didn't start creeping in until the beginning of December. Autumn was short and sweet, unlike 2009. And even after that the majority of the days leading up to Christmas were bright and the sun warm.
The pic below is one in a row of greenhouses that I pass on my drive into the city. At night I drive back along this road (usually from the Karate dojo) and the greenhouses are lit up eerily, like something out of Mulder's dreams. Presumably the veggies inside are being given extra light/heat now that summer has faded. For ages I'd been telling myself I was going to get a picture or two, then one night I remembered my camera and stopped. This part of the village is rather isolated (like most of it, really) and no one was around. As I pulled over my headlights reflected in the eyes of tanuki (raccoon dog) as it foraged beside the road. I was half expecting to find it in the car when I got back in after taking the pic.
Thursday, 25 February 2010
Wizard Winter
Woah! Another two weeks since my last update! Where on earth did that time go. Ok well, I can partly answer that actually. The time went to freezing my genitals off in the depths of the Japanese winter. Thankfully my kerosene heater has been trusty in combating the low temperatures, but I'm certain it's starting to make me insane. Snow days have been sporadic. Allow me to describe a 'typical' - but short - snow experience here:
[ I wake up. My shoji screens are shut and it looks alarmingly bright outside, but it's time to get ready for work so I don't think any more about it. I open my front door and find the world is coated in white, about which, depending on how late I am for work, I am either joyous or not so. I head to the lump of white outside my house, expecting to have to spend 10-15 minutes chiselling my car out of it. To my surprise the snow resembles millions upon millions of tiny polystyrene beads (!), and although thick and heavy, is easy to remove. Fast forward through the day and I'm leaving work, the sun having been out all day. 90% of all snow has melted and evaporated, with only chunks of ice laying in sunless areas of the village, under thick trees, etc. The following day there is no sign that snow covered everything the day before. ]
So, wizard weather here in Japan. Some days I expect to find a bespectacled kid wandering around and waving a short pointy stick while muttering to himself.
Other recent shennigans:
Mardi Gras Party - 13th Feb
A few of us southern Nagano JETs congregated around Marions for a celebration of Mardi Gras. I never knew what Et Tu Fais (sic?) was before, now I do. I didn't know Mardi Gras colours were officially purple, gold and green. And I never knew that if your party is too loud a neighbour won't bother knocking the door, they'll just call the Police. Thankfully the officer who came by was polite, understanding, and very nice, so we got away with the loud members of the party making asses of themselves. Thankfully the incident wasn't repeated or exacerbated.
Valentines snowboarding - 14th Feb
Without my Valentines to hand I decided to go snowboarding with Bryce and Kasumi in Hakuba. Once again I managed to land on hard ice, my left arsecheek breaking my fall yet again. I wish I could somehow swap it with the right one, I'm sure it'll be nerveless by the time I'm finished!
[ I wake up. My shoji screens are shut and it looks alarmingly bright outside, but it's time to get ready for work so I don't think any more about it. I open my front door and find the world is coated in white, about which, depending on how late I am for work, I am either joyous or not so. I head to the lump of white outside my house, expecting to have to spend 10-15 minutes chiselling my car out of it. To my surprise the snow resembles millions upon millions of tiny polystyrene beads (!), and although thick and heavy, is easy to remove. Fast forward through the day and I'm leaving work, the sun having been out all day. 90% of all snow has melted and evaporated, with only chunks of ice laying in sunless areas of the village, under thick trees, etc. The following day there is no sign that snow covered everything the day before. ]
So, wizard weather here in Japan. Some days I expect to find a bespectacled kid wandering around and waving a short pointy stick while muttering to himself.
Other recent shennigans:
Mardi Gras Party - 13th Feb
A few of us southern Nagano JETs congregated around Marions for a celebration of Mardi Gras. I never knew what Et Tu Fais (sic?) was before, now I do. I didn't know Mardi Gras colours were officially purple, gold and green. And I never knew that if your party is too loud a neighbour won't bother knocking the door, they'll just call the Police. Thankfully the officer who came by was polite, understanding, and very nice, so we got away with the loud members of the party making asses of themselves. Thankfully the incident wasn't repeated or exacerbated.
Valentines snowboarding - 14th Feb
Without my Valentines to hand I decided to go snowboarding with Bryce and Kasumi in Hakuba. Once again I managed to land on hard ice, my left arsecheek breaking my fall yet again. I wish I could somehow swap it with the right one, I'm sure it'll be nerveless by the time I'm finished!
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