{"id":441,"date":"2007-05-02T22:46:12","date_gmt":"2007-05-02T13:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2007-05-02\/441"},"modified":"2007-06-30T19:40:20","modified_gmt":"2007-06-30T10:40:20","slug":"snow-in-may-visiting-hokkaido","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2007-05-02\/441","title":{"rendered":"Snow in May: Visiting Hokkaido"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
<\/a>Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 200mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>320 sec, f\/5.6, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>Snowballs in May<\/span>(in the Northern Hemisphere, no less)<\/div>\n\n

We're on vacation in Furano,\nHokkaido<\/a> (northern Japan). It's my first<\/span> time to Japan's big northern\nisland, and it's turning out to be a really<\/span> nice trip.<\/p>\n\n

It started with the idea of coming to see one of the things Furano is\nfamous for, its huge fields of lavender and other brightly colored flowers. It's apparently<\/span> spectacular, but due to an unfortunate image \/ calendar\nmismatch in one of Fumie's guidebooks, we're here two months early for\nthat. (The other thing Furano is famous for is that it's the setting for a\nJapanese<\/span> soap opera that's been running for the last 25 years.)<\/p>\n\n

It's also too early for cherry blossoms<\/a>... the buds are not even starting to\nshow. In fact, except for the cheapest hotel rates of the year, this is the\nabsolutely worst time to visit. The trees<\/span> are totally barren as in winter,\nbut most of the “white fluffy blanket” of winter-wonderland\nsnow is gone, so all that's left is bleak, bland, and dreary. It's like the<\/span>\nend of the winter in any place that has a lot<\/i> of snow, but before\nthe first hint of spring.<\/p>\n\n

The thing is, the countryside around here is so full of beauty that even\nat its most bleak and bland, it's still capable of stunning beauty. But\nthat's for another post (a small<\/span> hint of which is here<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n

There are some mildly high mountains in the area, the tallest being 2km\nhigher than the surrounding countryside, rising about 7,000 feet above the\ncity. Today was cold, overcast, and rainy, so we took a drive<\/span> that took us\na third<\/span> of the way up. This whole island (which is about the size of Ohio,\nwhere I grew<\/span> up) gets massive<\/i> amounts of snow, but the area we\nvisited today still had snow 5 feet deep, and that's before the plow piled\nit deeper.<\/p>\n\n

Consider the picture below, in which Anthony stands on some drifting\nsnow at the edge of an earlier cut of a snow<\/span> plow. The snow must<\/span> be 5 or 6\nfeet deep where the plow cut it. And this is<\/span> what's remaining<\/i> today,\nMay 2nd.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 55mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>200 sec, f\/9, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 95mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>250 sec, f\/11, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>Anthony and the Volcano<\/span><\/div>\n\n

I didn't notice it at the time, but the part of the mountain in the\nbackground (which is several miles away, although it perhaps doesn't look\nlike it in this picture) looks like the remains of a volcano<\/span> having blown\nits top. I did notice<\/span> the steam cloud at the upper right, but I don't<\/span>\nrecall any of the signs referring to a volcano.<\/span> I'll have to check\nmore.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 200mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>250 sec, f\/8, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>Yes, Snow Can Be Cold<\/span><\/div>\n\n
<\/a>Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 82mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>160 sec, f\/9, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>Trying to Slide<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n
<\/a>Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 22mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>320 sec, f\/9, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>Only Sun We Saw Today<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n

\n\nNormally, I'd be tempted<\/span> to say that this was the most snow I'd ever seen\n— the most in May, certainly — except that yesterday (May 1st)\nwe took a different<\/span> road into the mountains, and ended up at an altitude\nover 1,200 meters, with enough snow to make what we saw today look like\nnothing more than the leftovers from a mildly<\/span> ambitious snow globe. I saw one<\/span> building so buried that its door was not visible (and certainly not\nused in the last six months). More fodder for future posts.\n\n<\/p>\n\n

Tomorrow we check out, then kill 13 hours until the 1:30am departure of\nour ferry back toward central Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We're on vacation in Furano, Hokkaido (northern Japan). It's my first time to Japan's big northern island, and it's turning out to be a really nice trip.<\/p>

It started with the idea of coming to see one of the things Furano is famous for, its huge fields of lavender and other brightly colored flowers. It's apparently spectacular, but due to an unfortunate image \/ calendar mismatch in one of Fumie's guidebooks, we're here two months early for that. (The other thing Furano is famous for is that it's the setting for a Japanese soap opera that's been running for the [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1,2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}