Update

Woke up to really bad neck pain, nothing else still hurt from snowboarding, so I knew it wasn't related. On a happy note - it's the fastest I've bounced back so far! 

Got the email just before second period that, as I thought, my insurance didn't cover my car. Sadly, I've had it less than 6 months. I spent most of second period trying not to cry (the neck thing really didn't help). 

After my last class, my supervisor and I went to the hospital in the big town. They took x-rays and everything in  my neck is fine. He basically gave me a prescription version of what I had been doing - Salonopas patches of amazing and pain reliever. 

Then we headed out to my car to collect my stuff. The minute I saw it I had to hold back the tears again. More than anything it's frustrating. And the whole pile of "what if I had . . ." questions wanted to jump back in. 

Thankfully my supervisor was then willing to head back into town to give a friend a box for an upcoming ALT meet, so I don't have to try to get it on the train (or in a car with friends). 

Now I'm back and feeling loads better with just the patch on my neck . . . kinda wishing I had refused the pain meds and only taken these.

First Real Snow

On Monday I woke up and it had begun to snow. It wasn’t very much and it was mostly on the tops of the mountains.


By the end of the day it had warmed up and it was about the same as that. Thankfully, since I wasn’t prepared for snow. I wore my Converse-knock offs and my fleece that day.

Yesterday, I woke up to white out conditions. I was surprised at how dark it was. I took a really terrible photo of it with my phone, but early morning it looked like this.

Today it warmed up and melted, and snowed and warmed up and melted. This morning though, there was a beautiful combination of season all in one scene.



Today, I was also caught off guard, though I shouldn't have been, when I went to leave school and realized I didn't have the window scraper in the car. I drove home with a mostly clear windshield and immediately put it in the car. 

The Magical Rock Heater

It’s November in Hokkaido, which usually means snow, heaters and nabe (a delicious meal), but this year it hasn’t snowed yet. The temperature has cooled down some, but not enough to snow or to use the heat in my apartment.

Currently it’s 19.6 (Celsius) inside my apartment, and though I’m cold, it’s a temperature that I’ve decided means put on more clothes and grab a blanket. Maybe if I were a normal Japanese person I’d have the heater on already, or maybe if I didn’t have a mysterious rock heater.

It earned the name “mysterious rock heater” when my supervisor explained it to me. I couldn’t figure out why no heat was coming out when I turned it on so I asked her to help me. With her limited English and my limited Japanese, what I understood was that by turning it on at 6pm, it would be working at 6am the next day. When I asked more, I learned that there were rocks inside.

Even now, I’m not entirely sure how it works, but it seems that it warms up the rocks and they hold the heat.

The tricky thing is that since it takes about 12 hours to warm up, turning it off and on isn’t really an option. So, when the temperature in my house is consistently below 19, it means it’s time to turn it on.

We’re not there yet though, so here I sit, wrapped in many layers with a blanket on my lap.

My first yuki mushi

Last year, about this time, I heard a lot about "Yuki Musih" (snow bugs). I heard we would see them and shortly after we would see our first snow fall. I didn't see them last year, but I definitely saw the snow.

Today, I was riding my bike home and I kept running into these things that looked kind of like the white cotton-y stuff that falls around during the summer. I didn't think much of it until, I thought it kind of looks like snow, but I was fairly certain that it wasn't quite cold enough to snow outside yet.

Then I realized it was a bug that kept running into my face as I biked home. I realized that today, I saw my first yuki mushi!

In kanji, that's 雪虫 (snow bug!).

On another note, it's gotten cold. I had to turn on my heater this evening. By tomorrow morning, this giant beast should be actually heating my house.

I love . . .

. . . staying warm when it’s cold outside!

My JTE and I went shopping this weekend for things I need for winter. I bought winter boots, warmer pants, sweaters, a hat and nice-warm pants (wear to work).

I walked to work today and though slightly cold (I should have worn layers on my legs), I wasn’t freezing. I didn’t feel the need to run into the nearest house to get out of the cold (like I did before).

While I was terrified of winter and am still not so sure about driving in it (I have yet to drive in the snow/ice), I now know I have the clothes to stay warm (which makes it way less terrifying).

We were at, but not below freezing today. See how I feel when we’re -20° C.

First snow troubles

Today we had our first real snow. Last week we had some, but it didn’t even stick to the streets.

It started to snow last night before I went to choir practice. It continued though the night and today, when I left for school it was a few inches deep (probably about ankle deep). My first thought “oh no, I haven’t actually purchased snow boots yet.” So I left in my tennis shoes. My shoes were quite wet by the time I arrived at school, but my feet hadn’t actually gotten wet.

I throughout the day I watched it continue to snow. I spent a large amount of my day with my back turned to my desk and my eyes on the window watching the snow fall. It was so beautiful.

When it was time to go home, I arrived back at my shoe locker to find that my shoes had not dried. They were still wet. Since they were still my best choice for snow I put them on and set out for home. By the time I was half way home my feet were cold. They weren’t too wet, but they were cold.

After the half hour-ish walk home in the dark, my feet were still warm, thanks to 3 layers on my feet, one of them being wool socks. But they were wet (ick!). Can I make it through to the weekend (when I can shop with my JTE) with my tennis shoes? Would my rain boots (which don’t fit tight) be a better option?