Winter Wonderland
It is now Thursday in Fukui, and the snow has showed no signs of slowing. It's been snowing non-stop, day and night for the last 4 days. It is actually quite beautiful to see it coming down. At the moment it is pretty light, but still falling. Earlier there were bigger pieces falling. It's actually very nice to watch from the comfort of a heated teacher's room! But then I look down (my office is on the second floor), and I see all the teachers' cars buried in snow. At least my arms are getting a good workout from all the shoveling.
It is the new morning ritual. Get ready for school, go outside, shovel some space from the exhaust, start the car (it takes forever to defrost the winshield) and then let the shoveling begin. I think I'm getting the hang of things. I shovel away from the tires as best I can to give it some traction and then try to get out. Bah. I have been told that it is a character-building experience and that it may help me become a bit more hardy. We'll see. There is too much snow for me to NOT complain at this point! Its just a bit of an annoyance really. I think if I could get out and play for a while in the stuff i might like it more. Right now its just a bother having to shovel to get in and out of my spot (and no, the building land lord has not made ANY attempt to help clean the lot), and being scared of driving.
In Fukui the "system" of snow removal is far from adequate in my opinion. I'm not trying to bash on Fukui or Japan but in this aspect in particular, its just insane. There are no plows. They use bulldozers to scoop up snow and move it somewhere else. Many businesses and schools have their own bulldozers so, those aren't so bad. But for some reason, maybe because they're too big, but the small residential streets do not get cleaned... so aside from the narrow roads with gaijin traps on either side, there is the added threat of sliding on the layers of packed snow/ slush. The roads are not salted but instead, some of the major roads have little jets in the center of the street that squirt water onto the road to melt the snow. This sounds crazy but apparently it doesn't USUALLY get cold enough to turn that water into ice... again, we shall see. This is also not foolproof as when it snows a lot (like oh, say... 4 days solid) the jets get covered with snow and can't shoot water anymore. So, we are stuck with gigantic puddles and snow on the sides of the road. Traffic is a mess! It took me forever to go to the post office & train station and then another 30minutes just to get back into my parking spot (I had to shovel a space).
On a lighter note... the sun is actually out in patches today so it looks really cute with the snow and the sun. :)
This is the last week before the break. My teachers are in a frenzy writing up final grades (Yay me! I finished already!) and dealing with the snow and students. Classes started at 9am today instead of 8:40 because of the snow. Lots of students were late, but they get to go home at 12:50.
As for me, I was late too. I thought I had left enough time to get to school by 8:25 but there was crazy traffic so I ened up being 10 minutes late. :( The worst part was driving up the hill. Sometime I will video tape the drive for you all to observe. It's crazy & with this stick shift I'm driving, I'm even more nervous. I will say though that I'm happy I can change the gears when I feel like it... I'm loving 1st & 2nd in this snow. On the way up, someone was trying to come down. This was a major challenge. As I mentioned earlier, the buldozers don't really make it to the smaller streets so there was snow everywhere. I had to stop and me & the other car did a sort of standoff. I had a mini-panic attack as I started to roll back a bit (we were on a bit of a steep incline, with snow) AND I realized that there was a car behind me. Luckily I made it by the car (thanks for teaching me about the hand brake dad!) and was back on my way.
The rest of the road to school was equally scary because I was sliding around a lot. Some students were walking (they really don't move or change their directions for the passing/ oncoming cars... its a little annoying at times) and I slowed to let them get ahead, but my car started sliding a bit and almost nudged one of the girls!!! (X_X #) Thankfully I stopped the car in time, and I don't think I actually touched her. The girl I almost 'nudged' didn't even flinch or look back (hence, I reasoned that I didn't actually touch her), but her friend gave me a bit of a look. :( BAD ALT!!! The rest of the drive went without incident... thank goodness!
All I have to say is that I'm going to take the train as much as possible and/ or becoming a winter hermit. Well... not really. That sounds pretty boring.... I'll come out to learn snowboarding & skiing, continue hip hop lessons ("PON" with Fuji-san!!!!!) and maybe make a few snow angels.
More Pictures
Seeing as I have NILL to do at school (the kids are going home early since finals have finished)... I have had plenty of time to update my photo albums... I suppose blog entries will follow... but don't get your hopes up! :P
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2116162324 -Echizen coast trip
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2116164354 -Kanezawa I trip
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2116160196 -Hakusan & Shiakawaga
OK... that's all I can be bothered with now.
Enjoy
'Tis the season fo OMIYAGI!!!
Finals rule.
They are hands down the most chill time of school. No class planning or grading, no having to look busy... bein an ALT during exams is a good thing.
So its countdown to destruction & I have a lot of presents to get for Christmas. Good thing Japan has this stuff ingrained into their culture... enter "omiyagi". Before I left, this was one of my biggest worries and annoyances about coming to this new place. But first, som background...
Omiyagi is something like souvenirs or any kind of gift given for some kind of once in a while event. For example, when one goes somewhere on vacation they are not expected (but sort of expected) to bring something back for their office/ place of work/ friends, etc. So, at most train stations, airports, bus terminals or places other tourist spots, you will always find some kind of box filled with sweets (cakes, mochi, candy) or local delecacies. I have found that these food boxes (especially the sweets) are really popular and easy as, you can just leave them out with a note and people will be more than happy to grab a piece on their own. You can also bring back little towels, phone charms, or anything else for the more special people I guess.
They also have box sets for housewarming and more recently, for the new year. It's fantastic. You can get tea, cakes, sweets, soba noodles, a set of cooking oil, detergent & softener, coffee, beer (the prettiest 24 pack I have ever seen), dish soap, soap & bath salts, etc. It makes things so easy!!! I can't get enough of it. I suppose its a bit of a bother to have to buy stuff everytime you go to another city (I've brought back stuff from Kyoto & Kanezawa so far).... over all though, I think its great & its a godsend for the holidays.
It started snowing again today. This time its not ugly snow! Its light, fluffy & cute snow that is just floating down. No theatrics this time... no lightning, thunter or pelting. It's really pretty
But I didn't bring snow boots today. Drats. (>_< #)
Let it slush, let it slush, let it slush!
This morning started like any other morning. I rolled out of my warm bed and shivered my way around my apartmet getting ready for work. I heard noise outside that sounded like rain so, I made sure to put on the rain boots instead of the much cuter kitty slip-ons I usually sport. Opened up the door to go outside and lo and behold... it was snowing!!!! How wonderful, you say! It must have looked beautiful on top of the old Japanese houses and over the surrounding rice patties...but you would be mistaken... OH how you would be mistaken. This was no ordinary snowfall and no ordinary snow.
As I walked outside, a flash of lighting lit the sky and was soonafter follwed by thunder. WTF was going on?! I thought it was snowing... but upon further inspection (aka... running like a madwoman to my car)... the sky was pelting down slush and not powdery cute little snowflakes. PELTING, I say!! Not falling, drifting, floating, or even gusting... but PELTING. I was under attack from the sky. I was just happy that I had taken my friend's advice the night before, and purchased a snow scraper and brush. So, after brusing off the snow (yes, yes, I did it all by myself... there's a first time for everything I suppose), I hopped in and crawled to work.
I was already running late, but I didn't know if I had my snow tires on or not so it was a slow drive in 2nd the whole way to school. I terrible flashbacks of gaijin traps and damaged rice patties, little obaa-chans and screaming in japanese. But I was able to make it there in one piece.
It was just miserable cold the whole next day. Lights at school flickered in and out and we got lots of lightning and thunder and PELTING. The only good-ish thing was that it was mad warm in the teacher's room so I was nice and toasy all day. I got some grading done, recording of scores, exam writing... and yada yada yada, it was time to go home. Sweet. Ah yes, the only OTHER good-ish thing is that I got the care package from home... woo hoo! I have never been so happy to see mac & cheese. Thank you M&D&M for making this holiday season bright.
Lastly, I found out I do have snow tires on my car already so the freak out ends today. ALSO I learned how to use my kerosene heater. Its absolutely worthless. It uses both kerosene AND electricity to run!!! What is the point of that I ask you! I thought it was cheaper to run or something... but it smells terrible, is a hassle to refil, takes electricity AND doesn't really heat well. Blah. What a start to winter.
