Blinded By the White: Winter in Japan

I was going to post about Cambodia this week, but as I looked around today, I noticed that the once white fields were turning their varying shades of yellow and green, while the last of the cherry blossoms scattered to the floor. In short, I noticed that Winter was really over. After nearly four months of watching mounds of snow build up outside my door, being pelted in the face by little things that looked all too like the snowflakes I used to make out of paper in elementary school, and sitting in front of my kerosene heater for a few minutes as part of my morning ritual - it was over. Coming from California, the only Winter I'd ever really experienced was slight winds and light sweatshirts. Snow was certainly unheard of except during those rare trips to somewhere more "exotic" than my SoCal headquarters. When I arrived in my prefecture/state in Japan, I was told that we have some of the most snow...in the world. I'm not sure how accurate that is, but most of the people I knew who came from snowy places agreed that this was a bit unreal. For me, it just felt like the winter wonderland I'd never had back home - since I didn't know what to expect, it felt normal to me (and I loved it). Anyways, instead of posting about Cambodia today, I thought it'd be better to share some of my winter pictures, since they'll soon be replaced by the coming of spring.

I also just finished my first Haruki Murakami book, Norwegian Wood. I didn't know what it was about before starting it, but I'd really recommend it. It's a love story in the way 500 Days of Summer is a love story - sad and twisted, but honest. I think its central focus is more on the relationships we have with people, not necessarily in a romantic way, but moreso the way that we interact and understand (or don't) the people around us. It also examines death, tragedy, and a certain philosophical level of emotions. I included some of my favorite quotes from this book on a few of the photographs and in the body of this post as well.

Lastly, I made a playlist of the fifteen songs I listened to most during winter. Just as certain songs can bring us back to specific moments, people, or places, these songs will probably always bring me back to winter in Akita.
Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?inzd14inthii4

Hope you enjoy. Stay warm and I'll talk to you next Sunday.
-M

Cameras: Nikon FM2, Nikon FM10
Film: Fujifilm Superia, Ilford Delta 3200, 





This lake, Tazawa, is one of the deepest in Japan and never freezes over in the Winter. There's a legend that a dragon lives below it and is constantly getting down with the woman in that statue. The heat they create keeps the lake warm. 



My city, Yokote, has an annual igloo festival. There are large igloos built around the city, with kids serving rice drinks and mochi inside, as well as tinier igloos built by students at elementary schools.

I stared back at her, but her eyes told me nothing. Strangely transparent, they seemed like windows to a world beyond, but however long I peered into their depths, there was nothing I could see. Our faces were no more than ten inches apart, but she was light-years away from me.” 

An incredibly snowy day where the horizon was hardly visible. It was like living in a giant marshmallow. If you try hard enough, you can see a little house in the distance.

“Everything was too sharp and clear, so that I could never tell where to start- the way a map that shows too much can sometimes be useless.” 

One of the junior high schools I teach at.

Construction signs are ridiculously cute in Japan. Besides elephants, there are also penguins, turtles, cats, and other small animals politely reminding you where you can't drive.

In this festival, all participants (mostly men) wield 25-30 foot bamboo sticks and then...beat the crap out of each other with them while the large crowd watches. There are three rounds to this beating - in the last round, two huge mounds of garbage (taller and wider than the length of a human) are lit on fire and the participants have to battle around these pits of fire. It looks so unsafe that it didn't quite feel real...but it was pretty cool. 

One of my best friends came to visit for a day at the end of our trip down South. He's an Instagram extraordinaire. 

I found this dog in the snow around midnight a couple months ago. I took her back to my apartment to sleep and tried to find her owner the next day. Eventually, her owner was found, but admitted that he dumped the dog because he didn't want her anymore. After some difficulties, we found her a no-kill sanctuary to stay at, hoping someone would adopt her. I got an e-mail yesterday saying she was adopted. They named her Momo. 

In this festival, you pay a few dollars and are given a wicker/wooden basket...thing...tied to a rope. Then they light it on fire and you get to swing it around your head until it burns out. Yes. Really. Japan is full of ridiculous and awesome festivals. 

And then, as usual, they lit some big thing in the middle on fire. 

This was from a Tug of War festival. Basically, there was an extremely long rope and people who lived in the Northern part of my prefecture were on one side, while the Southern people (me) were on the other side. I'm pretty sure we pulled that sucker about a football field's length. It took 20-30 minutes. In the end, the winners got to cut off a piece of the rope and keep it.

“But who can say what's best? That's why you need to grab whatever chance you have of happiness where you find it, and not worry about other people too much. My experience tells me that we get no more than two or three such chances in a life time, and if we let them go, we regret it for the rest of our lives.”