Showing posts with label snow. Show all posts

tokyo snow


This morning when we left the house, it was snowing: fat, wet, lazy drifting flakes that had somehow managed to cover most of our neighborhood in a thin layer. I hadn't realized that I missed the snow in Aberdeen until then; but by the time we emerged from Shinjuku Station thirty minutes later, it had stopped and Shinjuku itself was pristine, if a little wet, with no sign of snow anywhere.

Not much else is going on: there was a small earthquake the other morning that woke both of us up; we are settling into a routine in Kichijoji - class for three hours in the morning, lunch, afternoons studying in the Douter coffee shop, where you can sit for hours as long as you don't mind sitting two inches way from the strangers at the next table, which means it's actually more personal space than the morning trains.

snow and snow-related things



Merry Christmas, a few days late; we are keeping warm in sub-zero Aberdeenshire (well, I'm keeping warm; Iain is running around in the snow in t-shirts and generally proving himself to be much more comfortable in this weather than me; see: photos.) At any rate, I had a very nice Christmas with Iain's family, which was made all the better by being able to talk to my sister and mother over Skype, as well.




Since Christmas, we haven't done too much, although I spent my first-ever Boxing Day snowboarding* for the first time ever!



Above: Iain trying to push me off a cliff, as if I weren't doing a good enough job of it all by myself, everytime I strapped myself to a snowboard. 

Anyone who knows me knows that I am terrible at all things involving the cold, heights and fast speeds, so you can imagine how good I am at snowboarding. Despite this, I actually had a great time when I wasn't falling flat on my butt and/or clinging to Iain for dear life; at any rate, I'd like to do it again and to hopefully get a bit better. This whole 'winter sports'** thing is quite foreign to me; I tried blaming a childhood spent in California, and when that didn't work (Tahoe what now?), I tried blaming a childhood spent with an un-athletic family (quiet, Maggie), but I think we all know the real excuse is that I am a great big wimp with lazy tendencies, which I wouldn't mind getting over at some point, even if it does involve falling down a lot.

* Or, if you want to be all concerned with things like accuracy, intermittently flailing down the kiddy slope with Iain's help, and spending a inordinate amount of time sitting in the lodge's cafe reading Wolf Hall


** Fine, this whole 'sports' thing, period. 

snow! in june!




The Continental Divide

After two days of non-stop driving along the I-80, Iain and I made it to Boulder, where we had a great time hanging out with Ryan-from-Hanoi (and also, briefly, my awesome stepsister Nika and her friend). Ryan was able to show us a lot more of Colorado then I'd ever seen before, including more snowy weather than I'd ever thought possible in June. 



Ryan and Iain climbed to the top of Mount Evans (after we drove to the observatory just underneath the top of Mount Evans). I did not, because I am a wimp. Ryan, incidentally, is about to leave on a one month long hike all alone through the mountains, so he probably didn't even notice the two minutes it took the two of them to climb to the top while I picked my way gingerly through the icy snow below and tried not to fall down.


And then we saw Marmots! Best road trip ever! 

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