Little snow in Shirakawa Village, but...

Hi, Takuma. It seems that this season, we've had quite a mild winter here in Japan. I heard that even at Sapporo's world-famous Snow Festival, the ice sculptures partially melted, in some cases! I'm sure festivalgoers must have been quite disappointed--not to mention the shopkeepers who depend on tourist's patronage!

By way of contrast, parts of the northern and northeastern U.S. have really gotten pounded recently--with as much as three meters of snow, believe it or not! Cities and towns on the shore of Lake Ontario have been especially hard-hit. The snow and ice have been responsible for a number of deaths across the region due to traffic accidents, and of course, homeless people have been especially affected.

I do not know which is worse, the unseasonally warm weather here, or the bitterly cold weather there! This all brings up scary images of so-called global warming. Are the Earth's weather patterns going crazy, or is it just me? (>_<)

Aurelio