The Search for Snow

~Seasonally, it's the middle of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, but today I was comfortable in a T-shirt. This led me to believe that something nefarious is going on in Nagaoka. Yes, that's right, all of our snow has been--stolen!

^ The workers at this institution must be bored out of their minds this year.

But perhaps my intuition had failed, and there really was some snow around here. To gather data, I went for a long bike ride up into the mountains, searching for any snow that may have survived the brief flurries over the past few weeks.

^ My search first took me to Suyoshi, a village at the foot of the mountains. I say "village" rather than "godforsaken hamlet in the middle of nowhere" only because I'm feeling charitable. The truth is that Suyoshi was, on a Monday afternoon, as dead as the proverbial doornail. There are no visible shops, save a small convenience store that was closed (making it an InCon, I suppose). I saw no children playing. I saw exactly four cars. The only people were elderly citizens performing home maintenance.

I felt even more out of place than usual.

^ Despite the lack of...well, anything, Suyoshi did hold a few surprises for me. I came across this torii gate to add to my collection.

^ There are also several small temples in the village. This one is tucked into the foothills against the mountains. The contrast between the bright sun to the left of the temple and the dark, impenetrable mountainous forest to the right, combined with an utter lack of people, was a bit unsettling for me.

^ A closeup of the statues on the left side of the temple steps. I wonder why they're all wearing red caps?

^ The Nagaoka ski area is located near Suyoshi. As you can see, it's not terribly popular at the moment. Actually, as I found out when I got to the entrance, it's closed. I can't imagine why.

^ I rode past the rope barrier and up into the ski area. The first actual snow I came across was here in the parking lot...next to this one very lonely-looking car in a vast field of empty asphalt.

^ The ski area looked almost exactly the same as it did the last time I was here. The only difference was that there were even less people than before. It was completely silent and, to be honest, a bit creepy. I quickly proceeded farther up the mountain, but encountered more blockades indicating road construction, so I had to withdraw.

^ Up on the slopes I found what seems to be a recreation area of some kind. Either that or part of a boot camp. Like everywhere else on the mountain, it was completely deserted.

I am forced to conclude that our snow has indeed been stolen. I can't confirm the culprit, but I do have my guesses about where our snow went. Anyway, here's a panoramic image of the mountains around the ski area (please click on the image to get the full picture):

[Reminder: the "Cleativity Contest" is still open.]~Oyasumi!