There are a lot of things which are just better when you’re a kid. The events themselves are the same, but enjoyment or perception of it is completely different. Snow days are most definitely in this category. This is especially true if you work in education (as I currently do). When you’re a kid, snow days are the best things ever – a day you were supposed to be at school, but because of all the snow, you get to go outside, play with your friends and, if it snowed enough, go sledding and make snowmen. As an adult, the reality of the event – in this case, the snowfall – is the same. Roads, schools, and many businesses are closed. But because you’re an adult, you still get to go to work. It’s not like a normal day at work, though, because it takes you four times as long to leave the house. After all, you’ve got to unfreeze the door of the car, start it up so the defroster can do its thing, and start scraping ice so you can see where you’re going. Maybe you also need to shovel snow so you can escape the prison that your driveway became overnight. It’s a long, drawn out process that just makes things miserable. Then you get to drive to work. Again, this isn’t your normal commute because (especially if you live in more southern areas where they don’t get a ton of snow, like I do) the roads may be salted, but they’re not scraped, meaning they’ve become a solid sheet of ice. As a result, your commute also takes four times as long so you don’t end up in a ditch.
Once at work, you realize that half the people just decided it wasn’t worth it and used vacation or sick days, so you’re practically alone. The good news here is that because there’s nobody around, you can actually get things done without being interrupted. At the end of the day, you get to repeat the whole price over again (although you may not have as much ice on your car).
I probably sound like I hate snow and everything that goes along with it, but I really don’t. I quite like the snow. I don’t even mind driving in it. I’m quite good at that. It’s all the other people on the road I don’t trust. Similar to driving in heavy rainstorms or other inclement weather, a lot of people freak out and radically alter (or don’t alter at all) their driving patterns, making themselves a danger to themselves and everyone near them.
The point of all this is that yesterday we had our first snow day since I arrived in Japan two and a half years ago. I live in a mountainous area, but because of how far south we are, it rarely gets much snowfall. Yesterday (or, more accurately, the night before) was a different story. The temperature dropped rapidly and we got 15cm (6 in) of snow. Many of our students live in areas that are difficult to reach on sunny days, so with that kind of snowfall it was really a no-brainer to cancel classes, as a lot of students would be unable to leave their houses. Even if they could, the buses wouldn’t be able to get to them.
I received a call from one of my fellow teachers informing me of this, so I celebrated briefly, then went back to sleep only to be awoken a short time (actually about an hour, but I was sleeping) asking me if I wanted to work at the office, the middle school, or just take vacation. I opted for the office, at least partly because it’s easier to get to. Short on time, I just threw on some clothes and went in for an exciting day, during which I alternated between studying kanji and searching for good songs for a community wind ensemble. Coming up with set lists for a band like that is a lot more work than you’d think.
Today I wasn’t nearly as lucky. Wednesdays I teach at a school which is almost at sea level, so while they did get snow, it wasn’t bad enough to close the school. That meant I had to thaw the office car out, clear it of ice, and creep my way down the mountain road to get to class. Naturally I was late, because I had trouble getting up to 40kph (25mph) until I was over 3/4 of the way to school. Seriously, if you think American roads are bad in the snow, you haven’t seen anything. Japanese roads are significantly more narrow and much less straight. They also (at least on Shikoku) don’t plow them. From the looks of it, they don’t salt much either. Very dangerous and very slow. Fortunately, the trip back up the mountain promises to be a good bit easier. We’re due for a couple of days of warm(ish) weather before it drops back to freezing and begins snowing again.
I’m hoping I can get outside and do some exploring in the snow. We’ll see. Stay warm, my friends.
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