Snow in Japan

Snow. By Nuala

Before I came to Japan, I read somewhere that a lesser-known past time in Japan is “snow walking”. I could understand “cherry blossom viewing” which I had heard of, but was slightly sceptical of the idea that anyone would wish to spend hours gazing at mounds of icy whiteness. In New Zealand the only snow I had had any contact with was hard and is up on the mountains; so can you imagine my delight when I got to Itayanagi in Japan and saw my very first snowfall? This soft, fluffy stuff drifting down wasn’t like anything I had imagined snow could be; it was like someone had blown up a million feather pillows in the sky. It gathered into big marshmallowy piles and could be scooped into the best snowballs imaginable. A few days later we were walking around town delivering pamphlets and the sight of the snow blanketing everything was beautiful. Some weak sunlight squeezed through the clouds and shone gently on glistening mounds of powdery snow perfectly capping every surface. No sharp corners were to be seen. The snow smoothed, softened and beautified. I finally understood why it was a national pastime to gaze upon Japanese snow.