I'm awkwardly starting you about 2 months into my 12 month stint in Japan, but maybe I'll return to some of the earlier dates to sort of give you an idea of what's been going on. Maybe I'll start a weekly photo thing, or a post about my living situation, pay, etc., but for now we'll start with what's happening now.
ANYWAYS, Hello! Good morning! buenos dias! おはようございます！Guten Tag! It's 9:49AM as I write this -- It's about 5PM yesterday in the U.S. I'm not scheduled for any classes so I have toooonns of time to do "stuff," which in this case is writing a blog. :)
Until now, Japan's had a policy called "Cool Biz" in order to save energy that is typically spent on A/C units during the summer. "Cool Biz" encourages office workers to forego the Tie and Jacket for just slacks and a short-sleeved dress shirt. Now that the weather is cooling down (Especially in Aomori), I'm starting to get the hint that Cool Biz is over. Nearly all of my co-workers are back to the fancy tie + jacket routine, and I suppose I will have to follow suit (get it?) as well. They should really create a thing called "Warm Biz" where you can just come to work in your pajamas to work for the coming winter.
Along with the dress-code change, the weather's been changing as well. Up until now, we've been having weather that's very similar to that of San Francisco -- Half cloudy, blue skies, cool breeze, warm weather. It's been super pleasant. However, since the start of October, we've been getting stronger wind, colder weather, and rain. It's been more difficult to get out of bed, and unfortunately it's only going to get colder.
Since we're creeping into Autumn, the leaves will begin to change colors soon. In Japan, the leaves first begin to change in the north and go in a southward direction. That means that, generally, we in Aomori will get to see the leaves change before the rest of Japan down south. In my prefecture, the peak time for viewing the leaves change is mid-October. The trees on the summits of the surrounding mountains apparently change in late-September, early-October, so they should be changing around now. However, I still haven't seen anything yet.
Despite the colder weather, I still intend on doing home hiking through the red, yellow, and orange trees of Autumn at one of two well-known areas for viewing the leaves changing: Lake Towada and Mt. Hakkoda. Lake Towada / Oirase Stream is the most famous places to view the change in Aomori Prefecture and so I'll try to go here in mid-October (about 2 weeks) before we start getting snowed in. I'll upload some photos of the place when I go, but until then, here's a spoiler.
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| Source: http://www.japan-guide.com/blog/koyo12/g/121031_19.jpg |
Once the snow sets in, I'm probably going to do a lot more hibernating and less outdoor activities. I won't be able to bike places, it's going to be icy and dangerous to walk, and I might get sick, so I will be living it up and exploring until then (hopefully).
Also, click here for more information about Lake Towada
If you haven't heard me mention it before, Aomori Prefecture gets the some of the heaviest snowfall in the world. Wikipedia says that Aomori gets ~22 feet of snow a year (roughly 6 meters), and more than 80% of it falls in the months of December, January, and February. So that's going to nearly my height in snow for each of those months. Imagine that.
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| Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aomori,_Aomori |
Until next time!
tl;dr Weather's getting hella cold. It's gonna get colder. Gotta go see the leaves before I get trapped by the snow. TTYL.
