Japan is one of the heaviest snowfall areas in the world. According to The top 10 snowiest places in the world 5 of cities are ranked from Japan.
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Japan and Unique Snow Culture - One of the Major Snowest Place in the World
Japan is one of the major snowiest place in the world. In order to survive in this snowy region, various wisdoms have been developed to coexist with the snow since ancient times, and a very unique snow country culture has been formed today. How much does it snow in Japan? Data from JICE shows that compared to the snowfall of cities around the world, Japan has many cities that receive more snowfall. The graph below shows the total depth of snowfall in one year, with Asahikawa City in Hokkaido, Aomori City in Aomori Prefecture, and the Takada district of Joetsu ...
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Matsunoyama in Niigata Prefecture is no exception. Shoveling snow is a must, and we have to remove a tremendous amount of snow, but where to pile it up is also a problem. In the Kurokura area of Matsunoyama where I live, there are places where snow piles up due to the topography and it is difficult to remove it, so we decided to maintain those places. Although I have never experienced snow removal in Matsunoyama in winter, I decided to follow along and help out.
Looking at the terrain, there is a height difference of about one person's height between the bank and the road. Also, there were houses on the other side of the road, and there certainly didn't seem to be any place to dump the snow from the road.
The work day was set aside for rainy days.This is the time of year when farmers are still busy harvesting rice, so they want to proceed with the harvest as much as possible on sunny days.If the rice is harvested too late, there will be many problems with the quality of the rice. Since combine harvesters and other machines cannot be used on rainy days, this kind of maintenance work is often done on rainy days.
The fact that my work is affected by the weather is probably one of the most interesting aspects of working with nature. For me who mainly do paper work, it was a refreshing experience to see how my work changes depending on the weather.
We were supposed to use a backhoe to break up the soil, but the grass and trees were too thick for the backhoe to get in. The first step was to cut the grass and trees on the bank to make it easier for the backhoe to get in.
We also need a place to move the soil from the bank. There used to be a branch school of the Matsunoyama school in the Kurokura area, and the remains of the school are still there. In order to move the soil to the site, we had to cut the grass.
There used to be enough children in the Kurokura area to need a school, but now there is only one integrated elementary and middle school in Matsunoyama. On the slopes around here, children used to ski up the slopes while wearing ski boards. When I work with kurokura locals, it is interesting to unravel the various histories.
This was the end of the day's work. It was decided to make a flower bed here. We moved on to the next day's work. The next task was to remove the soil.First, we used a backhoe to change the soil into a condition that would be easy to dig up. After the soil is dug up, it is put on a dump truck and transported to the Kurokura site.
The road was narrow, and in some places there were pools on the sides. It was barely wide enough for a dump truck to pass. Especially when it was raining, there were dangerous places.
The soil was carried to the vacant lot of Kurokura Branch School. After all the soil was removed, there was a large space. I could easily imagine that it would be much easier to clean up after the snow had piled up, thanks to the change in height.
Preparations were also made to convert the soil brought to the site of the school into flower beds. The flowers will not be planted until after the winter. It will be interesting to see how the site of the former Kurokura branch school will change.
