More Japanese Snowiness

As if we didn't get enough snow festival fun at Sapporo Yukimatsuri, a few of my friends and I took a day trip on Saturday to Akita Prefecture, northwest of Miyagi, for the Kamakura festival of Yokote town. The kamakura is a snow-hut construction.

The western side of the country definitely gets harsher weather than the eastern side. It was snowing pretty harshly during our drive to Akita. Not having considered this, we had an Aussie and a Kiwi behind the wheel of the two cars we took. Although inexperienced at driving through snow (and whiteout conditions) they brought us there safely. The difference in the amount of snow along the roads in Miyagi and Iwate (eastern side) and Akita (western side) was astonishing.

When we arrived in Yokote town, we were even more impressed with the amount of snow they had. I’m no stranger to large snowfalls. After last year’s blizzards in Illinois that brought snow days to university students, I thought I understood what large drifts of snow were. However, in this town, there were drifts as high as my shoulders. There were whole untouched empty lots covered in snow as high as my elbows. The town had so much snow that they opened the sewers and were shoveling snow into them. And this appeared to be a normal amount. Had we been dressed better, it would have been the perfect snow to play in. As it was, we threw a few snowballs but quickly realized that we would become very cold if we continued with that behavior. More snow was falling down while we were there and in the 5 hours or so we had been parked, about 4 inches of snow accumulated on the cars. Since we spent that time walking around outside, my hair turned into a very interesting icy-dreadlock-y mess (which melted and made a huge puddle when we were at dinner).

As I said, a kamakura is a structure built out of snow and ice. Apparently this town has been building these things every winter for about 400 years. The townspeople who build these things then sit inside making a warm sweet drink (which traditionally has sake in it, but not anymore) and bean mochi. They invite the festival-goers into their kamakura and offer the drink and food. Of course, the kamakura is technically indoors and being Japanese, one has to remove one’s shoes before entering. This is no small feat, at least for me because I wear high-top boots that are rather annoying to put on and take off. This is exacerbated by the fact that you don’t want to step barefooted on the snow, nor do you want to step inside with shod feet. Therefore, I made quite a fool of myself when I got invited into one and spent ten minutes struggling with my shoes.

In addition to the kamakura that people sit inside, the school children also constructed miniature ones in front of their school. These were all lit up with candles and were very pretty.

Overall, it seemed like a very pleasant event because the festival was really local and relaxed. The kamakuras were in residential neighborhoods right outside people’s houses. Everyone was very friendly and inviting. It was surprisingly warm inside the snow-huts.