Well, my Facebook was all a-flutter with photos from the buddies back in Japan concerning the big snow in the northern half of Honshu....which includes Tokyo. And YouTube seems to have had quite a few videos get uploaded of the atypical blizzard which swamped the region in white. The video above was taken in the tony neighbourhood of Den'en-Chofu...the home of my Skype student and former Prime Minister Hatoyama; it oughta be interesting talking with him for his first lesson of the year this coming Saturday night. In any case, Tokyo got hit with 7 cm....which is an enormous amount for the Japanese capital. Apparently, the JR is running; the joke about them was that if a single snowflake hit any of the rails, the entire network would come crashing down.
In my years there, I remember perhaps one Winter in which the Kanto region got anything comparable to what happened on Sunday. Basically, Tokyo is snow-free most of the time, and what snow does come down is in the form of pleasant flurries. If there is accumulation, usually it's gone by the next morning. I don't think that will be the case today and perhaps for the next couple of days. Tokyoites may even experience that horrendous sight of watching the snow gradually going various shades of gray and black....and perhaps yellow, in pet-friendly areas.
Meanwhile, over here in Toronto, the grounds are bare once more but perhaps just for a few days. Apparently, 4 cm will be on the way later this week. The cold has returned, though. There was that distinctive below-freezing snap in the air. Spent the afternoon on this new translation assignment....not too difficult but had to download a free PowerPoint viewer on the new computer which was aggravating, plus I got the usual feedback from the editors about my work. I'm never gonna be too thrilled to see that although I am aware that they're trying to improve me as a translator. Let's say taking criticism....constructive or destructive....will never be my strong suit. In any case, it seems that I will be on this assignment for this week so I'm just focusing on that.
The Anime King has gotten in contact with me. He managed to miss the big snowstorm in Tokyo by a couple of weeks, and is now enjoying the hustle and bustle in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. He'll be back on the 19th after his long flight from Southeast Asia back to Canada; was surprised to say that he wants to meet up the next day for our first outing. He may want to re-consider considering the potential for extreme jet lag.
