Journal lingqi's Journal: December 09 (It's snowing?!) 1

December 09, 2002 (10:45am)

A very small update:

Nevermind "Japan has a dry, cold winter in the kanto (é-æ±) area." I walked outside today (to go pay my electric bill) and it was winter-wonderland.

There was not a breeze. Snowflakes, clumped together like down, leisurely made their journey from the pale, creamy sky above to the top of houses, trees, and cars, forming a thick blanket of bouncy, pure whiteness.

It snowed a whole lot since when I retired yesterday and now - must have been 3-5 inches, and snow continues to fall. Snow is japanese is "é," pronounced "yuki," by the way. In the yard of a house near my apartment, a little girl was gleefully making a snowman with her dad. (actually, as we all know, dad did all the work - when I walked past he was patting the snowman's face into shape, while the girl looked with glittering eyes.)

I vaguely remember reading somewhere that Japanese snowman is made of two balls while that of american made of three. I have not the remotest idea why - but at least today's ancidotal evidence coincided with the above observation - the snowman, short and stout (with a lying-pinnokio sort of disproportionally long nose), was indeed only made of two major snow-spheres.

The gound was not sufficiently cold so most of the snow that fell onto it became quite slushy - The sidewalk was un-walkable and I had to walk (carefully) on the street. While I hate chicago's weather, I have to admit that they have "gotten it down" as far as what needs to be done in the event of a snowstorm - while here in Japan (here, anyhow), being an infrequent occurence, I don't think any road less than the most major of highways gets salted at all.

Trains still runs on schedule - turbulent air stirs up the snow near the tracks into a misty smoke, which lazily settles down again after the train zooms past.

Paying the bill was really neat. I stick the payment reciept into the machine, and it thinks for about thirty minutes while a cartoon squirrl dances on the screen. Afterwards it would ask you to confirm the amount, and the prefered method of payment (cash / card). When selecting cash, You deposit your money not into one of those slot-feeding things, but rather a small door opens and you put your money inside (there is a compartment for coins too). It counts the money, give you change, and print out an reciept (all while the dancing squirrl happily waltz). Apparently you don't get your payment reciept (one sent by the utilities company) back.