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snow stopped car still buried. spilled juice on computer so keyboard problem :-( can't type well, hence short msg.

Yes, it kept on snowing lightly last night, and when I happened to look out at 5.40 this morning, it was snowing again! AARGH! But now, it's sunny and clear, well and truly stopped, it seems! It’s worringly quiet outside though, whichever way we look, as if people have given up trying to dig and plough. It maybe because there’s nowhere to put the snow anymore, but still they MUST try!! We have to get out some time! Come on people, pull together for the good of Japan.

Well it stopped at last around lunchtime today, and we went out for the first time since Tuesday. We managed to navigate our way through the narrow gulleys carved out through the snow, which was in drifts of at least 4 or 5 feet. Only a few streets were completely clear for cars. We found the supermarket open as usual, only a little depleted. The stuff we wanted to buy was readily available, as maybe we like milk, bread etc. more than the Japanese! It should be clear from now on according to the TV news, but at the moment it's snowing again worryingly steadily...

Apparently we've had about 1.7m of snow since this storm began. It's lightened up a little now, but not stopped yet. Now they're saying it should stop sometime tomorrow afternoon. Kitami's had more TV coverage on national news than ever, as we've been the worst hit.

The neighbour with the beagles somehow cleared a space in the snow to let the dogs out in, pushing his snow blower through the drift which was easily taller than him. And then a plough turned up just after dark today and managed to cut a channel down our street (revealing the Christmas lights of our neighbours, still on under the snow!). It's been slowly filling back up since then.

It's the same story today, but worse - it's just being snowing on and on without a let up! Kitami's been hit the worst I think, with over 60cm in the last 24 hours, 40cm of it in the last 12 hours! That's not a huge amount I suppose, but it's really drifting because it's so windy - there are HUGE drifts in the neighbours gardens now, and you can't even see the cars parked outside our building. We should be OK though - we've just checked our food and we'll be able to last until Saturday afternoon, a little longer maybe. It should stop snowing by tomorrow morning though, but it will take a while to get things clear. More later...

Well it's pretty early, but I'm up because I just had a call to say work's been cancelled! I'm not surprised, cos there's a blizzard at the moment, it's windy and snowy and well over a foot more snow has accumulated overnight. on top of all the rest. It's quite wet snow this time, which makes it a lot worse. So we'll be having a cosy day indoors today. The forecast was right, if about 12 hours late, and they're saying it will go on at least all day, maybe into tomorrow...

AMAZING! It was OVER zero today, a small thaw setting in, lumps of snow sliding of roofs and I was actually driving home on tarmac tonight, rather than ice. But it's started snowing again, coming down pretty steadily now.

Please see Hokkaido album on the Pics site for three pics I took yesterday which show the accumulation of snow pretty well.

OK, so what happened was that our original flight from London to Osaka was cancelled, but we got on another one to Tokyo an hour earlier, which was good! It was an hour shorter too, so it looked like things would work out bettwe...but then our next one to Sapporo was cancelled due to a big snowstorm there, so we had to stay overnight in a hotel (one of the most bleak locations ever, with a small white wedding chapel in the grounds and looking out on part of Tokyo bay with 24-hour smoking factory chimneys in the distance...but not too bad a place if you like a hotel that's well and truly stuck in the 70s!), and fly the next morning. We had time for a proper lunch in Sapporo before we got the bus back. We finally arrived here 12 hours late, but it was OK actually because we got a good night's sleep to break up the journey half-way. We don't feel too bad today.

The scenes outside are amazing, 2 feet of snow on the roofs, and huge icicles reaching halfway to the ground. It's sunny now and very beautiful, but might snow again tonight...

back in Japan. more later. tired!

in London from sunday-tuesday, not enough time really. we did a lot of shopping, riding on buses etc. and managed to catch up with a couple of people, sorry to those we couldn't see, it really isn't anything personal! we'll be back again! tuesday we went to St Paul's (first time for me) and were able to go right up to the top gallery (outside!) for really good views. then we walked across to the Tate Modern just to see the "Weather Project" in the turbine room.

today we don't plan to do much except sort out final things we need to do. it's another grey day in the fens.

We spent most of yesterday driving around (rainy) and looking at interesting churches etc. in some of the fen towns. Then we went to a nature reserve, well the shop part of it really. Heard the most fantastic example of R.P. from two middle-aged English ladies, fully kitted out for the bird-watch. I was sure they were faking it, but I think it was real.