Nagai Shinai
Winter in Nagai
Winter in northern Japan (the Tōhoku region) is intense. There is no two ways about it - unless you are the sort of person who thrives in winter you will suffer in what is one of the snowiest and wintery places on the planet. What makes the north so intense in winter, you ask? The answer is simple. All of the winds from Siberia containing that region's immense store of snow and ice float over the Sea of Japan and very generously dump their payload exactly in places like Nagai. So, while the temperatures usually do not fall too far below freezing, expect to experience snow as you've never seen it before (in fact, the city of Aomori in the uppermost tip of Japan is officially considered the snowiest city in the world).
A picture is worth a thousand words. Rather than describe winter in Japan at length, in this section I am going to let you experience the winter by showing you pictures of Nagai and nearby areas when the snow hits. So, prepare yourself to see a lot of snow.
Depression
Let's start with this picture. This picture sums up a lot of the important points to be made about winter in Nagai. This was taken outside of the middle school I worked at the end of the school day (4 pm). As you can see, though it is only *4 pm* it is already almost fully dark outside. There are grey clouds as far as the eye can see and snow blankets everything. The scientific term for this type of winter is "depression". Around December-January, you will have lots of depression days in Nagai.
Here's a video of simply driving through the snow on a wintery evening. This can give you a sense of what its like to be here during winter.
Here are two photos taken outside the ALT apartment building after a particularly snowy night. As you can see, the snow is almost waist level. And this is during one of the least-snowy winters they'd seen in Nagai in recent years! It gets much, much snowier
Starbucks on a snowy night.
Make sure to keep good care of your cars in winter. If it's from a rental place, luckily they will provide snow tires when winter comes.
Magic
On the other hand, there are also lots of moments where the snow and ice combine with the local architecture and flora to create something very special - a wintery magic. This can especially be felt at places like in this photo, the Kumano Taisha temple in Nanyo. Here, the beauty of the temple is accentuated by the snow and ice, adding a spiritual tranquility to the atmosphere.
Case in point, look at this video taken in Eboshiyama park (Nanyo). If you turn on the sound you can hear the Buddhist chanting in the background. Truly magical.
Winter Fun
Winter in Nagai can also sometimes be a lot of fun. See, for example, some of these photos from the annual snow festival. There wasn't much snow that year so it wasn't as decorative as it usually can be. But the locals still made great use of the snow they had and created a really fun event with food stalls, events, etc.
Random
Here are more pictures taken during winter. No particular theme. Just, lots of snow.
