what do you see?

I really should know better by know. Sunday afternoon: walking on clear asphalt at last, basking in the 7 degree warmth, feeling a finally significant sun on my face, seeing hope in the form of fresh green shoots pushing heroically out of newly thawed earth, like tiny versions of one of their more gutsy counterparts, I make a casual observation to my companion. "So, do you think the snow will come back again this year?"

Monday lunchtime, the view from the train slogging through the anomalous Sapporo suburbs:


...and it got a lot worse after that.