Snow

Last night we saw the first "proper" snow fall. We have had the odd...whatever the snow equivalent of a shower is...but generally it has still been quite autumnal. Then last night at about eleven, I looked out to see the whole world had turned white. Sadly overnight it had obviously had a fluctuation in temperature, as by the morning the entire town was one big ice rink, so I had to slide to school.

It was nice to hear though that for once my town was not the coldest place in Iwate. Yesterday I heard reports of virtual blizzards in Morioka, Takizawa, Ichinohe and Kunohe, and yet not a flake settled in Numakunai. Normally, while in Morioka people are still wandered around in shorts and t-shirts, I have been shovelling my way out my house for weeks. Nice to see the tables have turned. wahahahah!

Now it has to be said this snow is unseasonably early. It is marking the start of December in style, and thus is about one month early. My theory was that this means the coldness will be dispersed over 5 months, rather than the usual 4, and thus it will never get really cold, just moderately chilly for a long time....why do I think I may be wrong?

Getting into the Christmas spirit, I made a Christmas cake last night. Of course, being in Japan I couldn't buy any of the ingredients I actually needed, and making in a microwave oven, it burned slightly on top, but it still made an exciting Christmas smell all through my house...and left me with most of a bottle of brandy spare, bonus! Tonight I am going to get even more Christmassy and put up my tree and wrap my presents up to go underneath it. Very exciting! \(^o^)/ You can all look forward to a sideways photo of it tomorrow.

I was entertaining the idea of making a bilingual blog, but now I have written more than I intended, think I may give up on that idea. Maybe tomorrow when I only have to translate "this is my Christmas tree".