Greetings from Japan

Greetings, all.

My name is Mat, and I live with my lady in northern Japan (Yamagata ken, natch). The family/business fleet is all Subaru, a Legacy wagon, and three kei cars. Here is the Sambar in its natural habitat.





This is snow country, we average about 12 metres per winter. The Sambar loves snow, and it's a hoot to drive on snowy roads.

Yamagata is an agricultural prefecture. About 50% of the families around here are part-time farmers, and every farmer has a kei truck. That's why they work so well on the farm

 

Snow country is right-WOWSERS
Japan sure seems to get all 4 seasons,without much knowledge I would assume Japan to be sunny and tropical

Welcome to the forum

 

Welcome Ken

Wow. Pretty impressive picturesop:. But 12 metres of snow!!!! Where do you put it all?
What is the lowest winter temperature that you drive the kei trucks in over there?

Glad to have you with us
Jim

 

Thanks Subaru

In the summer, the weather comes from the SE, off the Pacific. It's hot and humid with the odd typhoon. The mountains (there are a lot of those around here, Yamagata means "mountain shaped") are covered in forest and impenetrable jungle.

Summer night festival. More blondes here than in Scandiwegia.



In the winter, the weather comes from the NW. Freezing winds blow from Siberia, across the Sea of Japan, where they load up with moisture, and then dump snow as soon as they reach Japan.

Spring, opening the roads up.

 

Hi Jim, thanks.

I'm on Honshu, and it never gets really cold here. About -15C at most. Up in Hokkaido, they get sea ice, so you can be sure the keis work in the cold.

"Where do you put it?". Spoken like someone who really understands snow

Wherever you can is the answer. That's the memsahib's factory roof on the left, and the carpark on the right. And my jacket in the foreground.



At home, we have a canal system. The town pumps river water through, three times per day. We dump snow in the hole, and its gone. Like magic.

 

Nice pics! That's the very reason why I'm in Nagoya and close to mountains if I want snow. You're a brave lad to live up there !

 

Great pictures.

 

'Ning Steven

I'm a country boy. The city lights of Nagoya would be too bright for me, and the roads too crowded.

Life is pretty comfortable here. We have lots of space, mountains, forest and clean rivers. If it snows overnight, the plough wakes me at 4.30 and the water comes on at 5.30. Then its a two hour window to clear shop access and parking.

Today the garage roof was snow-free for the first time this year, but ahem, it`s started snowing.

 

Wow that is some snow...ever thought of putting trax on your trucks? I would assume that you may be a good person to answer the questions on another post about what would be a good mud and snow tire

 

Wowzers! Still hard for me to get my head around that much snow. I grew up in an area that got 12 feet of snow in a season but 12 metres would have been a disaster. Everyone must be in great shape or have sore backs. Maybe both.
Anyways over here quite a few of these trucks are modified to have a snow plow placed on the front. Is that done at all over there or is much more serious equipment needed even for a residential driveway, sidewalk etc.
Well just to rub it in a bit; it is -23 here this morning and it did snow last night but I don't think that I will bother with the shovel because the broom will do fine. +15 weather coming this weekend and most of our snow will be gone soon!!
Jim
P.S. Some of you southern folk will probably tell us that you will have to get out the feather duster for your sidewalks and move the beer cooler into the shade eh

 

Woo hoo. Hello friends.

I'm English, so you will have to put up with my spelling

The authorities here are super-efficient, and the town is well equipped. When the 10cm alarm bell rings, the ploughs come out. They run graders up and down the open roads, with packs of up to four followed by a blower to clean up.

In town they use loaders fitted with a snow blade to clear the roads, but they push it in front of our property. It is up to us as citizens to clear as much or as little as we wish. My neighbour and I both run retail businesses, so we jointly run a good show.

I'm out of the loop wrt to tyres. I"ve always done all of my work on cars and bikes. If you want to know how to build an Alfa Romeo 105 engine, I'm the man. These days someone else pays the bills. In late November, a Man from the Garage appears, and the fleet dis- and re-apparates on snow tyres. In the spring, the reverse happens.

A little background. Studded tyres were banned in Japan about 20 years ago. As a result just about every mainstream model here comes with an AWD option, and the tyre manufacturers have been doing a lot of R&D. The Legacy and as far as I know the fleet run on Falcon Espia studless snow tyres. I can't rate them against other snow tyres, because I don't know. What I can say is this.

Twice I have been caught driving from Narita airport (yay Bali SCUBA) to Yamagata in heavy snow on summer tyres. Entering Yamagata is like entering Mordor. You turn inland, the road climbs. The clouds start to gather above the mountains in front. It starts snowing, then settling. Through the tunnel, and wow, there's 30cm of snow on the road Heater on max defrost, wipers at max attack, spending washer fluid and still everything is clagging with slush. Running very conservatively at 3am, I was totally unable to avoid running a red light because all the brakes did was run me down the camber.

Modern studless snow tyres are just brilliant :thumbsup:

 

I love snow!

 

Hello acidgear

I love snow and mountains. That's why I became a geologist. I spent most of my career in Australia. Flat desert. But I was paid to flog someone else's Patrol/Landcruiser to death, and could dial up a Jetranger if it was needed.

It is snowing as I type. It's 20 mins to the nearest skiing. One hour to the best skiing in northern Honshu (Zao Onsen).

 

I'm jealous! We get a good amount of snow but nothing like what you get.

 

Wow! Notification from the past.

A super snowy winter here, just coming into spring. We (northern Japan) are coming back online after a bit of difficulty.

Condolences to the tornado effected in USA.

 

Thanks Acerguy.

We are about 50km west of Sendai (Miyagi), so we were spared the worst of the earthquakes, and of course, the tsunami. Here, the earthquakes were magnitude 5+. I was at home both times, and the house is built to withstand magnitude 8. Everything was leaping around, with stuff jumping off the shelves. Scary. The worst part was knowing that it was coming from Miyagi and that right then, people in the east were dying or about to die.

We had some minor damage and breakages. Nothing important. Power went off for 2 days. I filled the bath with water while it still ran. That was a good move because the water then went off for 3 days. We had enough to drink and flush the bog. I was also able to collect snowmelt to boost supplies.

Road and rail communciations with the south were cut. We (Tohoku) were fine for staples, there was enough food. The killer was a lack of fuel. The tank farm at Sendai port was washed away, together with half the road tanker fleet. Without fuel, there was no way to distribute supplies to the the needy. It took about 3 weeks before fuel supplies were re-established. We managed by shuffling fuel between the family fleet, but modern vehicles are a pain to siphon. I'm tired of the taste of petrol.

Our business has dropped 30% turnover, a real hit as this is peak season for us. The gummint has stepped in with 1.7% loans, so we will recover. Our discomforts are nothing compared with the real suffering of our friends and relations on the east coast.

 

Wow, sounds like you are living WAY to close to Fukukshima. Stay out of the snow as it probably contains radiation! Drink bottled water from europe and limit the length of your showers.

 

Thanks Meesho. We are in northern Yamagata, about 150km NNW of Fukushima and more importantly, we are upwind. Thankfully, we aren't effected by the Fukushima radiation. Fukushima farmers and fishermen are suffering horribly.

 

Here are some shots for you Acerguy. I took these last summer outside one of our local hardware stores. Tippers a quite a rarity, but I see a few about. Hard to trap with the camera though.







That's my Legacy wagon in the background of this photo.

 

Wow, you need to do a bit more research and not rely on your goverment that has covered up this disaster and misled the Japanese people from day 1. One of the first things your government did after the disaster was increase the "acceptable" level of radiation by 20 times!! From 1 to 20 millisieverts per year which is equivalent to the annual maximum dose for German nuclear workers. If you are 150km away, you need to get out ASAP. In the time being, don't eat the local food, don't drink the tap water, limit your exposure outdoors especially during the rain. Please, use google to do your own research on the subject. Now they are reporting problems at Tsuruga Nuclear Power Plant in Tsuruga, Fukui.

 

Meesho. I appreciate your concern, but I don't share it. Our prefectural (Yamagata) government reports daily from two stations. One is in Yamagata city, and the second in Yonezawa to the south. Both are reporting no change from normal. Our farmers have been cleared to move their cattle to the summer mountain pastures. We find no reason to distrust the government.

Yamagata is an agricultural prefecture, known throughout Japan for the cleanliness of the environment, and the quality of the produce: rice, melons and fruit, especially stonefruit, as well as beef. Our environmental controls and monitoring are world-class.



This is the river our drinking water comes from. It is jumping with fish, and there is nothing upstream except mountains, forest and bears.



This is where I live (valley, middle distance). Farms, forest and snow capped mountains.

 

Yes of course the local gov't is reporting "safe" levels. Right after Fukushima exploded, they increase the definition of safe levels by 20 times higher. You pretty much have to work right at the nuclear reactor to face anywhere near the "unsafe" levels at these new standards. Do you have your own rad detector (gieger counter)? You can buy online for around $300-500. Highly suggest if you are only 150km away from the nuclear waste dump known as fukushima and plan on living there for the future. You should also be taking iodine supplements to fill your thyroid. God I feel so bad for Japan citizens how the Japanese government has lied and tricked you. Everyone else in the world is aware how bad things are.

 

Jumping with fish??? Radiation is invisible. You cannot SEE it. Unless it is crazy high doses, it is not going to instantly kill off any life. It bioaccumulates meaning it builds up in your system.

Nothing upstream?? That doesn't matter. The particals travel in the winds. There has been radiation found in the rain, seaweed and cows milk in BC Canada and Washingston State USA. That is 8,000 kms away. If it can be detected over in North America, I can't imagine how bad it is less than 200 km away. Please friend, invest in a radiation detector and do your own research on google regarding this. For your family's.

 

Again, I appreciate your concern. Here are the Yamagata data.

http://www.pref.yamagata.jp/ou/kenkofukushi/090001/kuukanhousyasen.pdf

Japan is a democratic country with a free press. Japan is not China. Here, politicians are accountable. Here it is not possible to hide the truth with lies, because here truth will out.

 

In town, we've had about 16 metres of snow this winter. A January photo from our living room window. The pole sticking out of the snow is 2 metres high.



This is my new toy. We have a canal system, where river water is pumped through channels, and we dump snow into the canals. This is a Honda Yukios. 50cc, and it does about 6 times the work I can manage.



Greetings from the good lady and me.

 

wow that's a lot of snow.... beautiful area you live in.....the honda motorized shovel is a great idea