It’s a sunny day here in Mutsu for a chance… lately it’s done nothing but snow every single day with varying levels of intensity. It’s hard to describe sometimes… especially since I’ve never lived in such a place before.

When I used to live in the Northwest we used to joke at all the terms the weather man used for rain intensity. I believe there was the “Oregon Mist”, “Slight Showers”, “Drizzle”, “Down-pour”, “Heavy Showers”, and “Partly Cloudy with a chance of sprinkles.”

Here on the Shimokita Peninsula, I suppose from what I’ve seen, there would be “Partly flakey”, “a slight flurry”, “a Light Dusting”, “The Artic Blast”, “Free-jeez-ezing Frost”, “The B51+1 Bombarding Blizzard”, “Zah To-ta-RU (the total) BOnZaI White Out” amongst others.

If it’s not apparent, it is really cold here. The weather today is was considered balmy and it reached around a modest 8°C (46°F). The rest of this week is supposed to get better with highs in the 10’s maybe. Yet, it’s hard to truly believe…
That said, there are a handful of good things about the weather I do like. The snow and Ice here, for all the problems it causes, does make things very pretty. I’m always amazed on my drives to other schools just how pretty it is to look around and see snow cling to branches of pine trees and ice work it’s way down from roof tops to form massive columns to the ground below. Here, everything has that “snowy Christmasy” charm… so, if Christmas is your favorite time of the year and you really really want to enjoy a 5-6 month stretch of “white Christmas” drop in and I will be happy to show you it… not really…

~J out

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