Sticky snow

From Monday. The naked twigs on our backyard tree were decorated
beautifully during the snowfall.

Last Monday it snowed in Tokyo. Usually that is a rather non-event. It snows and either barely makes it to the ground, or melts soon after. Occasionally it sticks around. This year is one of the "occasions". It snowed about 30 cm in our area, which is quite a lot for this region. The complicating factor is that the temperature then went south and stayed there. It's barely went above zero between Wednesday and yesterday. As a result the snow has stuck, especially in the shade. But it is no longer nice, fluffy snow. It is slick, slippery ice that is hard to remove from the roads and paths it has covered.

Our backyard on Monday.

This photo I took on my way home from church today.

It is one of the riverside paths we frequently ride.

I've stayed off my bike all week. Because of the way the streets are configured around our house, it is difficult to find a non-shaded street to get out to of our local residential area and therefore a non-snow-covered street. So I've walked or driven. But many Tokyo-ites are very dependent on bikes and it has been rather alarming to see even elderly Japanese people riding on ice. A decidedly risky endeavour, although walking may not be much safer as the ice is very slick in places.

But today, to get to church, we decided to brave our bikes and David and I took a rather round-about route to find clear paths. These three photos below I took on my way home, but the paths aren't ones I rode today.

Another photo from my ride home today.

One of the two "rivers" in our city. I rode on the path along the
right-hand side, the side that got the sun during the week). It was
mostly clear of ice.

This photo is of one of the houses behind our house. I took the photo yesterday, but it looks pretty much the same today. We've been watching the snow slide of this roof since Monday. Any bets on how long it will take for this to fall?

Anyway, I'm hoping that we get some higher temperatures this week (up to 8C is forecast) and that all this cold, slippery stuff will go away.