Having grown up in Ohio – land of arctic winters and steam-bath summers – I learned to enjoy the change of seasons. I missed them when I lived in California, but Kyoto is better, with glorious springs and autumns. Kyoto's winter is short on snow and thus is fairly drab, so I'm excited whenever the forecast has any chance of snow in it. Sadly, nothing usually comes of it, so any flakes that do materialize are cause for enjoyment. I love snow so long as I don't have to drive in it, so I'm always wishing for more.

Yesterday mid-morning it started snowing a bit, and by 11am we had a nice light dusting. But it kept snowing and snowing and snowing, and with the temperature just below freezing, it was the kind of snow that came down in big gobs and stuck to anything it touched.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to enjoy this snow because I did have to drive. Anthony had a play-date with Zak's son, Gen, and with only a light dusting on the ground at 11am, I decided to make the 20-minute drive to Otsu. The bit of snow was pretty, but the drive was entirely uneventful until we came out of the mile-long tunnel under the mountains separating Kyoto from Otsu, into much more snow. The main road was sill okay, but we had to take the first exit after coming out of the tunnel, and the exit was decidedly not okay. I knew it would be iffy, so I told Anthony to be quiet so I could concentrate, and I took it very carefully.

The next car that took the exit, perhaps 10 seconds behind me, wasn't so careful, and I could watch in my rearview as the driver lost control and the car just slowly drifted away from the center toward the side, stopping abruptly when it smashed head-on into the leading edge of a guard rail. The whole front-end and hood positively exploded on impact.

I carefully stopped the car where I thought it would be safe, and ran back to make sure the driver was okay. I noticed with disgust that three cars that came on the scene right after simply tiptoed around the wreck and went on their way. Anyway, the lady was fine, and had a cell phone, so I returned to Anthony and my car, and proceeded down the long exit.

The exit ends with a tight curve that is both steeply banked side-to-side and up-and-down as it drops traffic down to the surface streets below. When I got there, I found it to be pure ice, with two cars stopped because they couldn't navigate it without sliding into things. The entire exit was covered with this ice, but it only really became a problem at this point when the road was so steeply sloped.

Over the next several hours, I tried to move the car in small increments, sometimes able to stop sliding into something only by jamming the car into reverse and gunning it. It was a very unfun time. Even some cars with snow chains slid uncontrollably.

At one point about 100 yards from where I first stopped, I was able to put the car into a spot where it was safe from people sliding into it, and I let Anthony out to play in the snow. The picture of him above was taken just when he got out, after having spent the last hour and a half in a very tense atmosphere. We had a snowball fight, which helped the mood considerably.

I eventually tried to move it again, and got another 100 yards until I got stuck on a slight hill going up. I just couldn't get any traction. I could go backwards, and I could slide sideways, but I couldn't go up. It was pathetic. I know I didn't have snow tires, but it's a Mercedes and I expected better stock tires. Pathetic.

After another hour or so – and much to Anthony's joy – I finally decided to abandon the car and walk the rest of the way to Zak's house. I was very worried that someone trying to go up the hill would lose control and slide into my car, but I couldn't really move it, so there was nothing I could do.

So, we walked, holding hands tightly to keep from slipping on the icy slopes. Occasionally, I'd stop to take a picture. The snow was still coming down in huge clumps, so the FotoSharp camera raincoat that I always keep scrunched up in my bag came in very handy: I couldn't have used the camera without it.

Once we got off the side of the mountain into the main city, it was no less icy, but easier to navigate without the slopes.

When we finally arrived at Zak's place four hours late, we were wet, tired, and wet. We made a horrible mess of his place in short order — Sorry Zak and Maki!

I felt unsettled, so after a few hours I headed back to check on the car. Halfway there, I found a stack of bags of salt by the side of the road, so I carried one (25kg – 55 pounds!) up the rest of the way to my car. It didn't help, and I just could not get the car to move forward. It was both pathetic and strange at the same time, since I felt almost as if I had the parking brake on, or something. The car should have been able to navigate the hill. To be clear, though, I didn't have the parking brake on. I dunno what the problem was. I returned to Zak's.

As it started to get dark, the lighting became beautiful in a very odd way, with almost everything taking on a surreal grayscale, as if I were in an old movie. Yet, there were occasionally punches of color, such as the line of brake lights in the shot below.

The side of the mountain was beautiful, with different varieties of tree holding the snow with differing patterns.

The one bit of color in the mountain-side shot above is a street light on the road I was on earlier, just after it comes out of the tunnel. By this time, it had been closed to all but those with chains or snow tires.

Around six in the evening, Anthony and I headed home via train and subway, where Fumie mercifully had a hot bath waiting.

Today was sunny and warm (in the mid 40s, Fahrenheit), so most of the snow melted away. Around 3pm, I made the trip back to get the car, and drove it home.