Some news sources report that this years snowfall in Tokyo has been the heaviest in 7 years - some report that its been the heaviest ever.
We've been living here in Tokyo for about 15 years now and have never seen so much snow in the metropolis.
Tokyo is known as a Heat Island which is one of the reasons why the snow hardly settles around here - but this year was very different and just happened to strike at a critical time for us - The Wonder Festival 2014 Winter where we were for the first time ever going to have our own industry booth. Will talk about Wonfes later but today we take a look at photos taken during and after the 2 days of heavy snow over the past couple of weeks.
The next few photos taken in the midst of the snow storm hitting Tokyo on the first weekend.
Pretty much all of the highways we closed due to the snow. Snow gathers more easily on bridges as there is nothing directly below to heat them up.
Driving home was pretty bad - we didn't have any chains for the tyres so ended up sliding all over the gaff like everybody else who didn't have chains.
Regardless of the material, sleeves or chains put over tyres to prevent them skidding are called "chains" [チェーン] in Japanese.
Our Dualis is only 2 wheel drive as we figured that it wasnt worth paying the extra for 4WD for cruising the streets of Tokyo.
We stopped off at Autobacs to get some chains for our tyres but everybody was thinking the same thing and there wasn't any left in stock.
Tried a few gas stations to see if they had any chains but no luck - gas stations would usually only stock them if it was located in a snowy region like Hokkaido.
With no chains and snow deepening by the minute, we got stuck a few times so I got out to push - but slipped a few times which did in my spinal hernia ><
Lots of places had blackouts during the snowfall too.
Yesterday afternoon in Akihabara - starting to snow again...
By the evening the snow started to settle quite a bit.
But Snow + Akihabara + Itasha = nice combination ^^
There were so many places that I didn't recognize with the snow at first.
Saw many delivery folks braving the snowstorm on their two wheelers.
Wifey and I playing in the snow for a bit.
The view from our new place.
And the following photos taken this morning after the storm.
Managed to find some chains for our Dualis - they make a world of difference.
Many folks in the neighbourhood shoveling snow out of the way.
Nothing better than a hot bowl of ramen to warm up with.
Some places in our local shopping arcade had blackouts due to the storm.
One thing I love about Musashikoyama Palm is that its an indoor shopping arcade which keeps us dry.
Book Off also closed due to water seeping through the ceiling.
And I guess this is the origin of the naming "chain" for tyres.
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