Snow in Kyouto

Finally.

Though this is my first time being in Kyouto passed August, and I was frankly beginning to wonder if it maybe had not so much four distinct seasons as one continuous summer that happened to get slightly cooler around October. Of course Japan is so far south that I wasn't really expecting much, but, nope, this morning we finally got a burst of real, honest-to-God snow. Several months late of course, but it looks like it'll stick.

Although snowfall is actually symptomatic of an increase in temperature, this prompted me to finally admit that it is starting to get cooler; last week it reached the point where I could tolerate the heat without having to roll up my sleeves, and today I wore an actual jacket. As the dorm's resident Canadian it is incumbent upon me to chuckle appreciatively at all those who were seeing a whole bunch of the white stuff for the very first time, and also to mill around absentmindedly while all those in my vicinity dance back and forth, pull their hoods over their eyes, and encase themselves in seal lard.

I admit I do put up a bit of a front (my disuse of the word “eh” is apparently throwing people), but in all seriousness it is just honestly not that cold, at all, in comparison to what things are like back where I come from. I also enjoy watching the neophytes, with their sliding on the ice, imitating the Michelin Man, and trying to take pictures of falling snow. Guys, stop it. Not possible. Of course, I laugh now, but I'll get mine when Legit Summer comes back around and the roles are reversed. I survived Kyouto summer once before but I do not look forward to suffering daily heat stroke between the bed and the shower.

Regardless of your politeness or gender, being abroad has a strange effect on your sense of time. During my last ryuugaku I felt like the entire universe had accelerated. I'd think about stuff that happened the week before and it'd feel like it just happened. Holy shit, it's Thursday again? Didn't we just do that, like, yesterday?

Curiously, this time I initially had the opposite experience. I've been here barely two weeks but it feels like about three months. It must be because the experiences I've accumulated so far have come so tightly packed, and to gather the same number in Canada would require much longer. Now my perception of the passage of time is back to normal, but until today the lack of cold weather had my metabolic clock thinking that it was still roughly September, so that anytime the date was mentioned I felt like I was being left behind.