Hakkoda Snow Wall-Saying “Good Bye” to Winter

A few months ago, I came across some pictures circulated on Facebook about really tall snow walls on the side of the road, created by snow plows. It was a mystery to me (still kind of is) how they make those super tall snow banks that don’t collapse. Those pictures were taken in Hokkaido, the most Northern island of Japan.

Well, living in Northern Tohoku is not exactly like living in Hokkaido, but this year, thanks to the enormous amount of snow that we have received, we were able to see a very similar sight, right in our neighborhood…okay…maybe not that close….just one and a half hour drive from our home.  This winter, we have received over 200 inches of snow—that’s incredible!
So, last Saturday, we headed up to Hakkoda mountains. The road we wanted to see is called the Golden Line. It’s a road in the mountains that is closed for the winter. Then on March 30 and 31st it’s open for pedestrians and on April 1st it’s open to traffic.

This is how high the snow was on the way there.

That’s not a minivan in front of us—it’s a VERY tall bus.

So we drove through this for about 20 minutes, got to the intersection where the Golden Line started and saw this….

Apparently, it had snowed an additional 40 cm the night before so the road had to close down.  We were very disappointed.

Robert and Mark were very sad….looking longingly at the sign…wishing they could actually understand what it said.

Then Robert decided that life is full of surprises so he made sure to smile for the camera. Katya was still holding back her tears.

Alex simply refused to accept the truth by not even looking at the sign.

We decided to not waste any time and snapped some more pictures.

Now THAT is how they make those tall walls. “Aha” moment of the day!

Funny picture but shows how tall the snow wall is.

This is to document that I was indeed there on April 7th, 2012.

“I wonder if I can write something on the wall…umm…hmm..it’s completely FROZEN!” .  That is how it stays intact—it’s solid ice.

“Let’s get out of here", said Mark; and we left following some random roads.

One of the roads was so narrow that two cars could not fit. This guy, a proud owner of a Peugeot didn’t want to risk it (we didn’t care much about our 15 year old car) and backed out of the road.

Some more snowy pictures on the way.

So after driving for half an hour or so we decided to go to this very old onsen called Tsuta. The water was incredibly hot for my liking, at least on the girls’ side. I had to sit by the cold water faucet to make it possible for me to survive-haha. The lady who works there said it’s because thermal waters are so close to the ground in that location, that’s why it’s so hot.

Boys, apparently, really enjoyed their bath.

The building was very old and smelled of wood.

Beginning of April and still so much snow!

Although we were bummed about the road being closed, we still made this day to be really fun. Robert and kids even came back to base on time to catch an hour of Japan Day, one of the fun annual events to highlight Japanese culture.
This was a good way to say our “good byes” to winter and snow. I am sure it won’t snow this much in England. And I am not sure if I’ll ever live in a location where it snows as much as it snows in Misawa. We love snow! But we are really ready for spring now!
Have a great day,
Lyana
P.S. Only three and a half months left till our big move.