Oh Lord, Hokkaido...

Back in my carefree days on the JET Programme (google it), I once edited a newcomer's guide to life here in Hokkaido. Although Japan prides itself on having four distinct seasons, here in the great northern wilderness, I wrote, we only have two: winter and August.

I wasn't kidding.

Despite today being the 14th of April, Hokkaido got beaten up by a big bad winter weather pattern that bullied its way in from Siberia and whipped snow and wild winds across the island. We awoke this morning to this:

Out came the winter coats and boots, the show shovels and gritting sand, the curses and oaths at living in such a sub-arctic hell.

You would never think that Muroran (top temperature today, 3 C, snow, feckin piles of it!), lies on the same latitude as Marseille (top temperature 17 C, partly cloudy, no snow, haven't had any for years).