The Snow

I'd say that the snow has arrived but it's still in the process of arriving. It's been snowing for almost 3 days now without letting up for more than about 5 minutes. It hasn't been a light dusty snow fall either, it's been heavy and white. It's wonderful.

While I was at school for most of the first day that it snowed, this weekend gave me sometime to go for a nice little walk in the snow. The roads here don't really get "plowed" as they do in America. There are sprinklers that are constantly running... everywhere. They are on sidewalks, roofs, in the middle of the street, some buildings have them on outdoor staircases, and so on, and so on, and so on. I'm still unsure what my feelings are of the sprinkler systems...

On one hand, they really do keep the snow off of sidewalks and stuff. There isn't ever that thin later of snow that the shovel doesn't quite get. The weather here baaaaarely dips below freezing so it doesn't turn into ice really, it just kind of flows. Also there aren't really huge drifts of snow from the plows or shovels. The snow melts and flows away and there isn't a massive black nasty mound left over.

On the other hand. The parking lot of my building has turned into a small lake. Some sidewalks have about 4 or 5 inches of water on them. Waterproof boots aren't suggested, they're required (pretty much.) Basically everywhere you can walk is flooded with water. It's not usually that deep, but it's deep enough that if you wore shoes, your feet would be drenched. So far, I'm not sick of the water but I could see how it'd just get annoying.

I woke up this morning and suited up (now that I think about it, jeans probably weren't the best idea.) and went for a long walk with my camera in the snow. I walked for about two hours to find as much of Urasa as I could. The snow was reaaaaaaally heavy but it wasn't that cold. I think it was just below freezing. The result is really heavy wet snow... and therefore really heavy
wet clothes. As I left I noted that getting home would be easier because the wind would be blowing with me. When I headed home, though, it seemed as if the wind was originating from some epicenter near my apartment because no matter what direction I faced I was getting wind in my face.

Anyway... I really loved my walk. All my clothes are completely drenched but I got to see some really nice things.

Here's a link to a video and some music I made this afternoon of my walk.

URASA SNOW DAY (<----Click That)

-Mike