The snowstorm that hit our town, with pics...

I snapped these first 2 pics as soon as I brought Noah home from school Monday January 22nd. Many other parts of Kanto started snowing earlier that day. But it didn't get to our town until Noah and his classmates got out of school and then the snow started dropping quickly. This is just the start. 

My backyard and the rice fields behind our home. Branden was already on the train when I snapped this pic. And so he was arriving home, just 1 hour after I snapped this pic. But boy oh boy, did the snow pick up... as you can see in the 2 pictures down below.

Two things I want to point out. First is, yes my town and particular area of Japan only gets snow about once a year. However it *never* sticks to the roads at all. The roads always remain clear maybe wet at the most. But not this time. Also look at my windshield, the part where my windshield wiper didn't wipe off. The amount of snow dropped in an hours time. Wow...insane!!! I was inside my car with the heater on full blast and waiting for my 16 year old to get inside my warm car from the train station. Many cars were behind my car. Picking up loved ones too.

See these roads at the train station, you can agree the snow is actually sticking this time. So our snow storm this time was very different. Noboru was extremely worried about me and he did call me once... while I was at the train station he told me...be careful driving and to get home before the roads get so bad, that I can't drive in them anymore. I drove *so* slow to the train station and back home. I drove about 15 MPH. And at one point I had a road rage person tailgating me so super badly. Everyone else was driving nice and slow and safe about the same speed as me. I already had Bran in the car. And I was telling Branden..."if this road-rager wants to drive like a lunatic fine but... I wish they'd just go around me!!!" But, I was NOT about to feel pressured to speed up, just because they were practically eating my bumper. Stupid no brained person! It's people like that...that cause accidents. And for what it's worth, there was a sheet of black ice under the deep packed snow on the roads all the way to and from the train station. From when it rained all day before the snow started and froze. 

A pic from my front door and facing the street... we had 2 power outages. Monday night around 10:15pm. I was in bed, just laid down. The kids were in their rooms too, they too just laid down. And Noboru should have been home any second. But the whole house just went dark. My clock that wakes me up every morning went black. After 2 minutes the power came back on. And I was resetting my clock again and before I even got to switch to the right time, we had a 2nd and final power outage. @_@ This one lasted about 4 minutes. I had to go downstairs. Reset the clock on the stove. Turn the central heating back on again. And redo my clock settings in my room. But this time, I told the kids grab your cells and set the alarms for 4:50am, Noah set his for 5:50am. Bran and I wake up at 4:50am and Noah wakes up at 5:50am. But we weren't taking any chances in case we had another power outage and missed school the next day. By the whole power outage fiasco ended and I reset my clock... Noboru came home. He shoveled this tiny walkway for us. And I told him about the power outage. We were laughing about the power outage. He told me, he would be driving both kids to school tomorrow/Tuesday in his vehicle. Versus me taking them in mine like I usually do. Because #1 my car is a 100% electric car, which isn't the problem... but she has no snow tires and is not a 4WD. She's just a car car. LOL. Noboru meanwhile drives a 4WD and he has snow tires. Like serious snow tires. So he's more equipped to drive in the snow than my car. 

All the alarms worked Tuesday morning and we had no power outage. So between my alarm clock, my cell, and both the kids cell phones and Noboru's we had quite the chorus waking us all up. Noah stood in bed. Bran got up, went to the restroom, then washed his hands Started brushing his teeth. I turned on my computer. And turned on the hot water pot. I was checking my email because after just looking outside. I was wondering if school was canceled or not? I had 2 school emails in my inbox. First, Branden's school sent an email at 5:30am and said school was canceled. Snow day for Branden. Okay. So told Bran..."Bran, no school for you today, go back to bed if you want" He did and so, he was quite happy. Email #2. Noah's school said, they are on a snow schedule and school will start at 10am versus their regular time. This email was sent at 5:50am right when Noah was about to wake up. However, they had a change of mind, because at 6:50am, we got an email saying, the roads are too bad in our town, and so snow day for all kids in our town. School is canceled. So, I told Noah, go ahead stay in bed and sleep a little longer. The boys did wake up around 7:30am. So they got to sleep in a little bit. And I'm so glad they had a snow day, because the roads were just too bad Tuesday. This pic was taken on the right of my house. Tuesday morning.

That's our fence and again these pics are taken from our backyard of the surrounding area.

Blanket of snow all covering the rice fields. 

Tuesday morning. Snow day. My backyard and the rice field behind our house.

Thick layer of snow on our shed roof.

The walkway turned to black ice. Yikes! That's my black car to the right. She stood home all day Tuesday.

Neighbors car. Snow on bushes of our neighbors house and wow look at those roads.

Umm yes it totally stuck. The roads were dangerous all Monday evening and all Tuesday. 

Two brothers having a snowball fight. Hello Branden, hello Noah...

After breakfast, Noboru took the boys for a drive around town in his vehicle. The kids were thrilled to go. Branden took these pics and sent them to me of what he saw on his drive in our town. Plastic greenhouses and rice fields for days. Yes, I do live in rural Japan. : )

The gorgeous snow and beautiful Japanese rice fields.

Noboru and 1 other car were actually able to drive. All the cars on the opposite side of the roads were abandoned cars. That got stuck in the snow. See how bad the roads were? Yep, no wonder schools were canceled. Safer that way. 

Inaka life!!! Country life! : )

Tuesday evening, while I was finishing up supper. The kids wanted to go outside in our backyard. I certainly had no objections. They made the largest snowball ever. Those silly kids. And for the record. Noah made 5 snowmen in our front yard Tuesday morning. It looked like a snowman convention by the time Noah finished with all of them. : )

I snapped this pic Wednesday morning after I dropped Branden at the train station. So in case you were thinking the snow probably melted. Not by Wednesday morning for us in our town at all. I heard it's all but gone in Tokyo. But it's still here in my town. See the roads, in this pic? That's black ice and treacherous dangerous regular icy roads. Today is Thursday and this road even this morning was still icy in parts. I'd say right now 90% of our roads in our town are free from ice. But 10% are still very dangerous. And Noboru told me that he heard it might snow again next week? @_@ I hope he's wrong. If you are a Celsius person every morning when I took Branden to school this week, even this morning it was -4 degrees Celsius and that's just 24 degrees F for us Americans. That is *freaking* cold. Super cold. And now you know why the ice on this road is still here. The weather right now? It's a nice balmy 34 degrees F. So 2 tiny degrees above freezing. But as soon as 5pm hits tonight... it will start drastically getting colder and colder. And this particular road is always in the shade. So...anyways. Japan has been quite cold lately.