Glad to be here...

The temperature now is about 3 deg C and I am not going to the Porter's Lodge tonight (to check if there is mail for me) even though it is just a short walk from my room. I just want to stay within the confines of my room and enjoy the warmth from the full-blast heater.

As I sat back to think about my assignment, my mind suddenly went back to Japan. Did some mind arithmetic, it must be 9.15am there now. If I was shivering in cold, Niigata must have been white by now! So I did a quick search on the temperature there. It was not too bad at 1 deg C. Haha....oh well, I expected something worse....maybe below freezing or something. But sometimes the numbers could be deceiving if you are not at the place.

The Big Swan Stadium in Niigata City. Still no snow yet.

Aerial view of Niigata City. Snow is still absent in this part of the city.

And this part too....

So, I did a quick run to Japan and into Niigata. I managed to check out some really interesting sights there. Aha! Niigata city is still not inundated with snow yet. But other areas were. I thought, hmm..what about Urasa? I could not find it, probably the place was too "unheard" of in Japan. Even the Japanese have attested that! Haha.

The other part of Niigata that has snowed

So, I tried other places. The nearest I could find was Jomo-Kogen, Joetsu, Nagaoka and Tokamachi, which were good enough places to extrapolate what I wanted to know. Voila! These places were partially white. So it's really snowing there already!

The scene from Jomo-Kogen. Ski-lifts are open for business now!

Must I say that I have "escaped" the mad winter there and pile of snow that do me no good in creating the mood to study in the most dreadful season, where the sun appears for a couple of hours before disappearing again by 3.30pm or so. I know my time will come where the snow will fill up the roads here and temperature dropping below freezing, but at least I still have a few more weeks or so. In fact, I don't think the snow here would be as much as Niigata, which is a good thing for everyone here. I'm just glad to be here now....