Did you survive the Great Kanto Snow Disaster of 2013?

[gaijinpunch]

(If they do, no doubt someone will be complaining at the expense of maintaining it on the offchance of snow...).

I would be one of them.

[yanpa]

Exactly.

Come to think of it, I was in the hills around Chichibu at the weekend, there were bags of grit stocked at the ends of each bridge on the main road - presumably because there's a pretty good chance they'll be needed in any given winter.

[Coligny]

Toyohashi have those bags at every bridge... (for a 1 day a year event) also every summer the local truck maintenace shop is shock full of snow removal equipment for maintenance.

You forget 1 thing... with the local geography of towns surrounded by hills and mountains, there is not much place where it actually don't snow... sure the city might not see much of it, but drive 10 minutes out... and it's snowmaggeddon... Me Julie got a friend formerly from Nagoya who was a LanEvo gearhead and switched to Fairladies before moving to Tajimi... She had to buy a Note for the 5 month of the year where RWD anything is out of the question...

[Yokohammer]

You forget 1 thing... with the local geography of towns surrounded by hills and mountains, there is not much place where it actually don't snow... sure the city might not see much of it, but drive 10 minutes out... and it's snowmaggeddon...

Exactly. It's not so much where you are as where you go.

Same here. There's normally not much snow in the flat area where I live (way more than Tokyo though), but drive 15~20 minutes and you can be up to your arse in the stuff. It's less than an hour to several ski resorts in the Zao mountains where they measure snowfall in meters rather than centimeters.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Some of my buddies went skiing up in Nagano last weekend. The return trip to Tokyo on Monday that usually takes about 5 hours when traffic is heavy took 17.

[matsuki]

I had a great time watching the "catch" try to stop girls on the street and either getting a umbrella in the face or eating shit as their prissy "boots" had no grip in the ice/snow. Snow may only be a few days each year but for a place that gets this much rain, the streets/city/etc. couldn't be more poorly setup for the four seasons of Japan.

[gaijinpunch]

Saw a mom trying her hardest to prove that Japan is the country that Darwinism is the most active in. Riding her mama chari, with toddler in basket in tow, neither of whom were wearing helmets, going up my road which is a hill, and is in perpetual shade. IE, it's still quite icy. Saw a guy slip on it last night, with normal shoes.

[yanpa]

Saw a mom trying her hardest to prove that Japan is the country that Darwinism is the most active in. Riding her mama chari, with toddler in basket in tow, neither of whom were wearing helmets, going up my road which is a hill, and is in perpetual shade. IE, it's still quite icy. Saw a guy slip on it last night, with normal shoes.

Too late, she's already reproduced.

[matsuki]

Saw a mom trying her hardest to prove that Japan is the country that Darwinism is the most active in. Riding her mama chari, with toddler in basket in tow, neither of whom were wearing helmets, going up my road which is a hill, and is in perpetual shade. IE, it's still quite icy. Saw a guy slip on it last night, with normal shoes.

Too late, she's already reproduced.

Sounds like she's trying to fix that mistake as well

[Marked Trail]

The snowbank behind my house has finally started to melt...

cold.jpeg

via

[Coligny]

I think that's mine, I losted it few days ago... Hope it don't void the warranty.... those realdollz are pricey...

[Samurai_Jerk]

Holy shit. The way they were going on on the TV this morning you would have thought a Day After Tomorrow-level blizzard had hit Tokyo. A reporter was on the scene in Shibuya in exactly the same spot he was in after last month's big snow storm. He was explaining how people had learned their lesson from the last time and were walking very carefully so no one was slipping or falling down like a month ago. I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that there is zero now on the ground right now. Later they cut back to the guy and he said the snow had just been falling heavily but was now nearly stopped and was the consistency of sorbet. That color commentary really brought home the severity of the storm to me.

[yanpa]

Yeah, dunno how we're going to get through this one. I'm glad the TV was showing useful tips on how to walk on the many ones of centimetres of snow which might blanket the centre of Tokyo in drifts of up to 5mm.

[matsuki]

They were claiming 10cm+ yesterday...boss thinks it's overcompensating for the last storm where they underestimated the severity and pissed off people that took them at their word.

[yanpa]

Well at least JR cut the number of trains by 70% during the rush hour, I'm sure that provided some of the required drama.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Well at least JR cut the number of trains by 70% during the rush hour, I'm sure that provided some of the required drama.

Plus there was a jinshin jiko in Akiba adding ever more drama to a very tense situation.

[yanpa]

Someone who blew the last of their savings on expensive mountain climbing boots disappointed by the absence of the promised snow, no doubt.

Correction: JR cut the number of trains *to* 70%.

[matsuki]

JR cut the number of trains *to* 70%.

Genius! Nothing like hot salaryman ass in your face in the morning.

[canman]

I can't believe that the people living in Tokyo are some of the same people who experienced WWII, attacks, air raids and fire bombings. Now there is a little bit of snow and you would think it was the end of the world. Damn morning TV had nothing but live updates from every major station and how terrible it was and how the city came to a screeching halt. Get some stones and deal with it. This is really embarrassing to see these reports. It is almost as bad the weather reports from LA two weeks ago when the temp, gasp, almost dropped into the 40'S F!

[yanpa]

JR cut the number of trains *to* 70%.

Genius! Nothing like hot salaryman ass in your face in the morning.

Trains in the morning... happy to do my bit to reduce crowding by not using them

Meanwhile a M8.0 and a tsunami warning for everyone to get excited about

[matsuki]

It is almost as bad the weather reports from LA two weeks ago when the temp, gasp, almost dropped into the 40'S F!

When you grow up in desert weather, that shit is relatively insane

JR cut the number of trains *to* 70%.

Genius! Nothing like hot salaryman ass in your face in the morning.

Trains in the morning... happy to do my bit to reduce crowding by not using them

Meanwhile a M8.0 and a tsunami warning for everyone to get excited about

I don't use JR (not that Seibu is any better) to get to work but uber crowded trains on days like this accomplish what? Less trains, less late trains?

[Samurai_Jerk]

Less trains, less late trains?

Not "less" but maybe "fewer".

[Coligny]

I don't use JR (not that Seibu is any better) to get to work but uber crowded trains on days like this accomplish what? Less trains, less late trains?

In other countries, during bad weather (real or expected), you reduce the speed of trains. Because trains tend to brake like shit... that whole low-friction low rolling-resistance thing that make them awesome for moving heavy shit... also make them handle like a puddle of diahrea on a wet floor... Slower train on the same number of track -> less trains...

[yanpa]

JR cut the number of trains *to* 70%.

Genius! Nothing like hot salaryman ass in your face in the morning.

Trains in the morning... happy to do my bit to reduce crowding by not using them

I don't use JR (not that Seibu is any better) to get to work but uber crowded trains on days like this accomplish what? Less trains, less late trains?

That is the reasoning mentioned, but I suppose it'd only work if there was enough snow to actually cause delays. I bet any delays that did occur were due to overcrowding caused by reduced train service

[Coligny]

Meanwhile a M8.0 and a tsunami warning for everyone to get excited about

At furst I thought it wuz what woke me up... but it was far and 10am...

100080_00000_0000_yhrg04g-4.jpg

Then I discovereded that I nearly dieded in mah sleep... at 13:42...

(and took an arrow in the knee... -don't worry, I dun't get this meme either-)

So, just need to survive the tsunami warning now... out' to stock on noodles...

[matsuki]

JR cut the number of trains *to* 70%.

Genius! Nothing like hot salaryman ass in your face in the morning.

Trains in the morning... happy to do my bit to reduce crowding by not using them

I don't use JR (not that Seibu is any better) to get to work but uber crowded trains on days like this accomplish what? Less trains, less late trains?

That is the reasoning mentioned, but I suppose it'd only work if there was enough snow to actually cause delays. I bet any delays that did occur were due to overcrowding caused by reduced train service

So lame....instead of POSSIBLY waiting a lil longer for a late train, you are GUARANTEED to wait longer for an INSANELY CROWDED train....all so JR's on-time record doesn't suffer. Gaman gaman gamaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan

[Harhar]

Yeah, this morning was weird. Walked out of my apartment at about 9 to go to work. Needed to take the train only one stop to avoid the "snow" which was nothing more than melty crappy flakes. Saw some truck with chains on in an alley way here in central Tokyo, that made no sense. One thing I have noticed is there is no idea to put out carpets or mats by the doors/hallways. I had on non-rubber soled shoes today and I almost ate it walking into my building. Lesson learned I guess.

[cstaylor]

So lame....instead of POSSIBLY waiting a lil longer for a late train, you are GUARANTEED to wait longer for an INSANELY CROWDED train....all so JR's on-time record doesn't suffer. Gaman gaman gamaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan

Right, they should really take a lesson from LA city planners instead.

LA-Traffic-11.jpg

[yanpa]

I don't use JR (not that Seibu is any better) to get to work but uber crowded trains on days like this accomplish what? Less trains, less late trains?

That is the reasoning mentioned, but I suppose it'd only work if there was enough snow to actually cause delays. I bet any delays that did occur were due to overcrowding caused by reduced train service

So lame....instead of POSSIBLY waiting a lil longer for a late train, you are GUARANTEED to wait longer for an INSANELY CROWDED train....all so JR's on-time record doesn't suffer. Gaman gaman gamaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan

It's not about cutting trains to maintain punctuality records (that's the kind of trick British railway companies like to pull), like Coligny said it's about adjusting for reduced capacity due to slower running caused by snow. However JR, for whatever reasons, overestimated the effect the snow would have (presumably they were getting their weather information from one of the more exciteable broadcasters).

[cstaylor]

However JR, for whatever reasons, overestimated the effect the snow would have (presumably they were getting their weather information from one of the more exciteable broadcasters).

Considering how difficult the problem is, erring on the side of caution is a good thing.
Here's an example of how not to do it.