27 January, 2012

It has been cold

It's been pretty cold this week, for Tokyo. The snow that fell on Monday night is still lying round in shadowy places. This includes ice on many smaller roads where the buildings are so close to the road that the sun never reaches them during winter. The road outside our house is like that. I didn't really see the need of shoveling the snow on Tuesday because in my vast experience of five Tokyo winters, the snow has never lingered much more than a day. . . Not so this year.

This is the not-so-nice side of snow. You can't play with it, it mostly looks dirty, and it is dangerous to walk, ride, or drive on. In snow country they put special winter tyres on to cope with such conditions, but not in Tokyo.

In terms of temperature, I was longing for a Hokkaido-style house this morning. More insulation required! Double glazed windows would be nice Outside was -2 C at breakfast-time. Inside in places where there are no heaters (stairs, entrance, hall, toilets, and our bedroom), the temperature was just above zero. Not nice. And temperature are forecast to stay low for several more days at least.

Tomorrow morning we have a nice, early, and no doubt cold start to go and watch wrestling again. At least it should be warm in the car and once we get there. It's just the 'getting going' bit that's tough. and tomorrow I'll have a much better idea of the rules too.

No comments: