Martin's Japan Pages



Our Man In Japan

08 November 2006

First Day of Winter

Yesterday was 'ritto'(立冬, りっとう) the first day of winter, according to the traditional Japanese calendar. And the weather didn't half live up to the title. We had rain and freezing cold gales, and this was in Tokamachi, nestled between the mountains. I felt sorry for the farmers working in the fields next to the school, even more so when the wind took the contents of basket and blow it over the ground. Embarassingly, the students in my class rushed to the window and laughed at the old farmer as she tried to pick everything up. She managed it, bless her, only for the same thing to happen ten minute later. I felt so sorry for her.
The winds we had were nothing compared to the deadly tornado in Hokkaido. Japan usually has typhoons in the south during summer. A tornado on the Northern-most just before winter is completely random and it caught everyone off guard. Hopefully there won't be another.

Today, you wouldn't imagine that we had such extreme weather yesterday. The sky is blue, sun is shining and the hills are turning orange. This weekend last year, Keiko and I took a day trip to Nagano to see the Colours (I'll post those photos soon). The weekend after we went to Electraglide (for some reason, not on this year :-( ). Weekend after that, snow started falling and I had my Japanese test in Matsumoto. So, not long left to study. And not long til I start boarding again.

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