The forecast for last night and today was nonstop snow for Kyoto, so it was with disappointment but not surprise that I awoke to find just a thin scatter of snow. Sigh, why do I get my hopes up? Even just a few inches makes things wonderful, like this snow six years ago, but it doesn't happen often in the city.

In the end, Kyoto saw mostly rain, and Anthony's soccer practice was canceled, so we decided to take a drive up north for an hour or two (to near where I took Anthony skiing four years ago) to see whether they might have more snow.

They did, but not much.

The area we visited includes a rural street famous for being photogenically lined with trees. I'd first heard of it years ago when a photo by my doctor of it appeared on his computer's screensaver during an exam and I had to stop to ask about the location, but I'd not gotten to actually visit until today.

It was probably the worst possible time to visit.

The road is surprisingly long, stretching for 2½km (1½ miles) like this, lined with towering dawn redwood. Different areas have different vibes, but today everything was a resonating blah.

On this street was a small temple we stopped at because we noticed a huge pile of snow had accumulated under its steep roof, and Anthony was getting antsy to play...

The bottom inch or three was pure slush, but the big pile was playable snow, and play we did...

Fumie sat in the warmth of the car while letting Anthony and me play, and snapped a few photos through the foggy window with her phone...

(You'll notice that my photo is better than Fumie's, but that's only because I had a better camera 😉.)

Standing on top the snow pile brought me even with the edge of the roof....

At one point I wandered off to take some shots of the tree-lined street, and during that time Anthony returned to the car...

On the way home, in the encroaching dusk, we stopped by the southern end of the line of trees, and I snapped this photo of the nearby mountains enshrouded in mist and becoming enshrouded in dark...