Understandably, with my thousands of friends, millions of acquaintances, uncountable fans and followers, I am overwhelmed with curiosity about the details of my life here in Japan. Here’s one question I’ve gotten . . . well, hmm . . . taking a microscope to the past thirteen or so years . . . I’d say at least three times: “What’s the weather like there?”
Granted, this query might on the surface seem rather superficial. Which if you think about it is where superficial things reside . . . on the surface.
But let’s face it. Weather determines everything from what kind of clothes to wear, to the fecundity of food crops, to maintaining excellent hair styling and make up, to how much Chapstick to pick up at Walgreens, to how much over the speed limit you consider driving. Obviously the challenges generated by weather may not result in very deep, profound philosophical questions about life, the nature of the Universe, the competition between fate and free will, the epistemological trappings of solipsism. But without any doubt, we pay a very high price for not posing the right weather-related questions at the right time, with an abiding passion for uncovering the truth: Should I bring an umbrella? Is my toupée glue waterproof? What’s the difference between a tornado watch and a tornado warning? Is that a cumulus cloud or a radioactive mushroom cloud?
I’m not going to get into all of the nuances of weather here. I’ll just say that it’s almost identical to the weather of my last home town in the U.S., that being Portland, Oregon. Keep that in mind and a quick Google search will provide all the weather stats you need.
At the same time, rather than have you leave empty-handed as you mount a demoralized point-and-click escape from this page to surf the latest TikTok videos, pit-stop Facebook to see how many friends deleted you today, tweet Photoshopped pics of Donald Trump naked in bed with Bill Hillary Clinton, or better yet, to Google ‘weather Portland, Oregon’, let me take a minute to share with you a little meteorological joy we’ve experienced over the last couple weeks.
It’s been snowing almost every day!
Yes, this is quite unusual. We typically get snow at most three or four times over the entire course of winter. But it’s really been coming down! Just about every morning, we’ve gotten up and our already beautiful valley is white from one end to the other. Several times it kept on snowing well into the day. Here’s what it looked like . . .
And here . . .
There you have it. Glad you asked?
Stay tuned for more stories from the land of the rising sun!
(If you can handle the excitement.)
