Although it's not quite spring and there is a bit of snowfall right now on a Saturday, two weeks before the official change of seasons, I thought I would look back on this year's winter. This is my fourth winter in Aomori City and the news has stated that this year the snowfall has been its heaviest in twenty years! Most of my weekends and paid holidays were spent snow-shoveling! This is something you get used to when living in snow country.
もうすぐ春というのに、今日の午前中はまた雪が降ってる。春分はあと二週間後なので、今年の冬を振り返る。自分が青森市に引っ越してもう四年になります。この四年のうち今年の冬が一番厳しい。ニュースでも今年の冬は２０年ぶりの大雪となったことも知った。週末や有給の日は雪かきに追われた感じでした。ま、雪国に住むとこれは当たり前のことかも知りません。
Wednesday, December 16. This was the view from my den which is on the second floor of our house.
水曜日、１２月１６日。朝起きて外を見るとこうゆう景色でした。この眺めはうちの家の２階、自分の書斎の窓から。
Wednesdays are one of the days where I go to a factory in Naijoshi to teach English. I have to make a forty-minute train ride to get to my station. This is at Aomori Station.
毎週の水曜日僕は撫牛子にある企業で英語を教えてます。４０分の電車移動です。これは青森駅から撮った写真。左の電車はつがる号。右にあるのは青い森鉄道、子供絵本作家馬場のぼる１１ぴきのねこでデザインされてる電車です。
In this picture, I am at Naijoshi station after my company classes, waiting for a train to take me back to Aomori.
この写真で僕は企業の授業を終了し、撫牛子駅に戻って青森に戻る電車を待つ。
The month of October through December, the mornings were usually dark, wet and cloudy. It snowed quite a bit too, so imagine my surpise when I woke up on a Friday morning and saw the sun shining down on the field we can see from our house.
１０月から１２月の朝はずーと暗いか、曇ってるか、もしくわ雪が降ってた。でも１２月１８日の金曜日の朝書斎のカーテンを開いたら、びっくり、太陽が出てた、凄い晴れてた。
Of course I was working on this day as well and the sunshine didn't last long.
もちろんこの日も仕事だった。そして太陽はすぐ姿を消した。
About an hour before our school closed, I looked out the window of one of our classrooms and looked toward Aomori station. Spring is still a long ways off.
学校がしまる一時間前、教室から外を見ると結構良い景色になってると思った。
One week into the new year. Saturday, January 9 after I opened the curtain in my den and looked outside.
新年に入って一週間後の１月９日。朝起きて、書生のカーテンを開く。外は相変わらす雪景色。
Not only am I witness to a wintry scene, it is of course snowing as well.
雪景色だけではなく、その時も実際に雪が降ってた。
書斎の前に立つ木。
The next day was Sunday. It is the start of me and my wife's weekend. But looking outside, we already knew we would be doing a good deal of snow-shoveling today.
翌日は日曜日。僕と妻の週末。外を見て、今日は間違いなく雪かきの日に決心した。
My wife suggested starting in the afternoon after lunch as it was still snowing and would only accumulate again and give us extra work to do.
妻が雪かきはランチのあとにしようと提案した。なぜなら今やってもまたすぐ積もるからと言ってた。
Our front yard. It usually takes us about an hour to an hour and a half to complete, including the driveway.
玄関の前のヤード。駐車スペース含むと大体一時間から一時間半くらいで終わる。
What we weren't looking forward to was getting rid of the snow between our house and our neighbors.
うちの家と隣の家の間の雪かきが一番きつい。これはあんまり楽しめない。
And we have to make a slope across our house to give a place to dump more snow.
家の向かい雪が捨てる場所の坂も作るなきゃいけない。
The first order of business when snow-shoveling, create an easy-to-climb slope to dump the snow.
雪かきを始まる前に一番大事なことは雪を簡単に捨てる坂を作るないっと。
This little mountain of snow is mostly from the driveway.
この小さな雪山はほぼ駐車スペースから集めた雪だ。
Progress of the snow between houses.
家と家の間の進み具合。
We did manage to finish snow-shoveling the side of the house before it got too dark to do anymore.
なんとか家の横側は真っ暗になる前に終わらせた。
I think we spent about three or four hours snow-shoveling today.
今日は３・４時間くらい雪かきをやりましたな。
We were done for the day but I took a few more pictures of the area around our house.
今日の雪かきは終了しましたが、家の周りの写真をもうちょっと撮りました。
It really is convenient to be able to dump the snow right across the street.
本当に家の向かいで雪が捨てるんなんて、超便利です。
I took this picture from standing at the top of the slope while looking down on the field below.
この写真は坂の上から撮った一枚。
There is a small river running at the bottom of the cliff.
崖の下に川があります。
The following Monday turned out to be a very nice day. Our house location is great for dumping snow but I've seen other people around our neighborhood dragging huge sleds of snow to the local park to dump it. I decided to check out the park myself this morning. This is the large cherry blossom tree in the park.
翌日の天気は凄いよかった。私たちの雪捨てる場所は最高。でも近所でいろんな人々が多きなそりみたいなものを使って、近くの公園まで捨てに行った。今日はその公園をちょっと覗いてみようと思った。写真に写ってる木は大きな桜の木。
It looks like some people have made a couple of paths in the park. You can see the swings are buried in the snow. You won't be seeing any kids playing on those for a while.
公園の中で誰かが二つの小道を作ったみたい。ブランコは雪で積もって、子供たちはしばらくブランコに遊べないね。
There's a sheer drop where people dump their snow. It would be so easy for any one of them to go over with it too!
９０度の崖がある。気をつけないと誰でもが雪と落ちて行く可能性あり。
One of my neighbor's slope.
隣人の坂だ。
Looking out the window from the comforts of my den.
家の中に戻って、心地良い書斎から外を眺める。
A beautiful Sunday morning, January 24.
１月２４日、日曜日の朝。凄い晴れてた。
２月３日。水曜日の朝。妻がこういう天気の中で僕を仕事まで送ってくれました。感謝。感謝。雪国なので、この程度の天気じゃ店や学校は普通に営業してますよ。
Thursday, February 4. I had taken a paid holiday on this day. The previous evening a bulldozer came by to clear the main road of snow but instead of dumping the snow in one place, they dumped it along the entire side of the road. I spent about an hour remaking the slope because I had to cut down the mountain in the middle and also recreate a gradual slope which was full of ice blocks.
２月４日、木曜日。この日有給を撮りましたが、ほぼ雪かきに追われた。前日の夜、ブルが来て、いつも雪を一カ所にまとめて捨てますが、なぜが昨日のブルはすべて道路の隅のほうに捨てた。今日の午前中は一時間ほど坂を作り直す作業してた。坂とその真ん中が雪、や、固まった雪、ほぼ氷だったので、結構重労働でした。
Standing at the top of my rebuilt slope.
やり直して坂の上に立ってる。
It's hard to give you an idea of what the drop from the cliff is like from this picture.
写真じゃ崖の深さが伝わらないかも知りませんね。
This is me after finishing today's snow-shoveling chore.
雪かき終了後の一休み。
Below are more random photos I took after snow-shoveling.
下記の写真はランダムで撮ったもの。
Wednesday, February 17, one of my company class days so here I am at Aomori station setting off for Naijoshi.
２月１７日、水曜日。撫牛子で企業の授業があるため、青森駅に電車通勤。
Naijoshi station later that same day.
同じ日の数時間後の撫牛子駅。
Thursday, February 18. I took another paid holiday. I had to use up my paid holidays before the end of my contract which was coming up at the end of this month. Looking outside, I already knew I would be spening most of today snow-shoveling again.
２月１８日、木曜日。今日もまた有給をとりました。なぜなら今週末自分の契約が切れるので、更新しても、有給はキャリーオーバーはしない。そとを見て今日も雪かきだなと決心。
The wind was so strong last night that it blew a lot of power snow which piled up in front of our slope. I would have to take care of that first.
昨日の暴風のせいで坂の前に飛ばされた雪が積もってた。坂を先に直さないと雪かきが始まらない。
Fortunately, that didn't take as long as it did when I had to clear the frozen snow.
よかったことに凍った雪ほど時間がかからなかった。
I think I finished the front yard and driveway in about an hour or so.
今日は駐車スペースと玄関前は一時間ほどで終わりました。
I'm hoping this is the last long day of snow-shoveling. It will be March in a couple of weeks and spring will be coming soon!
これが長い一日の雪かきになるのを願うところです。あと二週間でもう３月に入り、春が近づいて来る！
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