Snowy January

It has been snowing pretty steadily since the beginning of 2008. It is nice to live in a snowy city again for a winter. We have both been working lots lately and so haven't had many interesting stories that stick to share on the blog. Of course working is a relative term now that Shawn is a snowmobile guide and I will uodate you on some of the "work" he has been doing later in this post. First, I have some random winter observations that may or may not be interesting to a Canadian audience experienced and comfortable in the ways that we deal with heavy snowfalls and beatiful crip days.

One thing that has been incredibly impressive is the winter driving skills. I have rarely seen drivers that look dismayed by roads so icy that pedestrians have a difficult time staying upright when crossing them and have yet to see even a minor fender bender. One factor that I am sure contributes greatly is the tires. I don't know what they make winter tires with here or what technology goes into them, but I would bet that the same team that designs toilet seats also works on snow tires. We need to get our hands on this technology too.

Chains are also an everyday item instead of occasional use. Vehicles like buses, postal vehicles including scooters, and taxis all have chains on constantly, which helps to break up the packed snow on the roads and create some navigable places to cross the streets.

The sidewalks that are heated stay cleared of snow, but otherwise the snow gets walked on and left to become slick packed snow or blocks of ice which makes the walk in to work an excersice in balance. At the dollar stores you can buy what they call crampons, but are actually plastic straps that you can attach to your shoes that have little metal spikes on the bottom in case you need extra traction. A friend of ours actually went to a cobbler to get his boots "winterized". His boots now have short aluminum screws in the soles to give him some grab on the ice.


We have been surprised that the ice and snow and cold weather hasn't stopped the fasionable young Japanese women from wearing stilleto heeled shoes and mini skirts. We leave the house with down parkas, long johns, mittens, scarves wrapped around our faces and pass by these women with their perfect hair and exposed skin teetering along the sidewalk. That is commitment to a style. Makes me wonder how often they have to treat frostbite at the hospital here.

Toques are also a rarity here speaking of fasion. Aside from that no one knows what a toque is because that is a Canadian word - you just don't see people wearing them even when the weather is nasty windy. They will however wear juvenile looking earmuffs without worry.

I was surpirsed (not sure why) that all of the apartment buildings either have a small tractor that they use to move snow from the parking lots, or a big snowblower. After a big dump of snow everyone gets busy moving snow out of the parking lots - but still no one touches the sidewalks. The city, however, waits until 3:00 in the morning to plow (sort of, as there is always lots of snow left on the streets despite their efforts). I know this because we are roused every night by the beeping and grinding of the machinery and the requisite polite sounding recording of a Japanese woman asking for people to please be careful and excuse the noise. Every large verhicle and most lampposts have these same recordings that play on an incessant loop - the creepy thing is that the woman's voice is the same no matter where you are or what the message is.

Now onto Shawn's busy work schedule.... He is loving his job as a guide at Snowmobileland and he and his boss have an interesting rapport. We giggle over the text messages that he sends to Shawn in the evening. His favorite way of referring to Shawn is "big boy", a term he uses in most text messages - this is a happily married man, just to clarify. Here is one message that he sent at the close of a string of texts between he and Shawn - the message leading up to this one was Shawn saying "sleep well, see you tomorrow". I'll let you read the boss's response below.

Here are a couple of other shots of Shawn's work life. He and a coworker found an automatic weapon (bullets still in it) in one of the sheds on the property. They of course busied themselves for the afternoon posing photos of gunning down fleeing victims and other random Rambo'esque images.

The next shot is of the boss's mom (she's the real boss around there) riding on the newest addtion to the fleet. There will be a comedy show (slapstic comedy shows are HUGE on Japanese television) coming up to shoot an episode at SnowmobileLand in a couple of days and they are getting ready for the visit. Yesterday Shawn and a few of his new Japanese friends (also guides there) spent the day field testing this rig. Today mama'san and one of the cooks took a ride (Shawn's boss is the one driving the snowmobile).