Mercurial

Spent the winter of 20-21 in Aomori and 21-22/22-23 in Otaru. Otaru is a bedroom community of Sapporo but gets even more snow, thanks to its coastal location. Never once checked models. It snowed almost continuously from mid Dec to March. I grew up in Baltimore, then gradually traded up my snow climo, to NYC, then Montana, then Aomori, and finally Otaru. Otaru was probably the pinnacle. Well, there are a few small towns between Sapporo and Asahikawa that get more, like Iwamizawa and Bibai. I once again live in a ski resort town in Montana, and the climate here is way, way worse. This is a mental illness... lol.

it's been a crap winter in sapporo proper. They've missed out on many of the snowbands that have hit Otaru, Iwamizawa etc. For that matter, the whole of Hokkaido just torched late last week, temps got into the mid 40s for two days which is quite unusual.

I live in Japan. Have about 110" so far, which is about normal for this part of Hokkaido. Honshu (the main island) has generally below normal snowpacks, as far as I can tell. When you hear western media going off about 'record snow in Japan', usually it's just record snow on a particular date. So for instance, 3 feet may be record snow for Jan 16, but def not an all time record. Also confusing matters is that multi-feet dumps are quite common in the parts of Japan that face the Sea of Japan. It's sort of like saying 6" is record snow at BWI or something.

Decided to hang in Hokkaido for the rest of winter. My job is in Tokyo, but since I currently have remote work privileges, I might as well keep bumming around northern Japan for the rest of winter. Anyway, here's the train to Otaru. Some photos from around town; I felt it was quite photogenic for a Japanese town (contemporary Japanese architecture is usually just... ugh).

It's going to keep shifting north until NYC sees snow. Which puts DC and Balt firmly in the jackpot area, I suppose.

thanks for checking, think I fixed it.

These were taken today. Just another day in the life

Even Reno gets feet of snow, wow.

Looks like a super lame winter back home in Montana... oh well.

皆さんこんばんは, Sorry, I'm not a good phtographer but I don't have any better place to drop these pics. These are of Aomori, Japan in mid-December. Will try to get some more pics these weeks (the snow is deeper now). お疲れ様でした

Trains were completely shuttered during the morning rush hour here in Tokyo due to this storm. Very rare for this country. Anyway, Hagibis is intriguing. Hopefully it can keep it together enough that I can get a few hours off work again. Haven't formally checked water temps, but it's probably a bathtub all the way to Honshu given how warm this August and September have been.

lol is the weather ever not bland down there? My father lives in Nipomo.