The weathercasters have been stating that the last few days of snow have exceeded the total amount of the white stuff that we got for all of winter last year. I can believe it. I sludged through increasing centimetres of snow in my heavy boots to get some grocery shopping done this morning and my feet still hurt like crazy. I don't usually drink alcohol but I can certainly use a drink right now.
Maybe enka crooner Hiroshi Itsuki（五木ひろし）has got the right idea. In August 2010, he had a second release of his 115th single "Oshiroibana"（おしろい花...The White Flower）, and on it, he had an additional coupling song titled "Yukimizake" (Drinking While Viewing the Snow). As the Bing image at the top that I made shows, it can be considered to be one of those melancholy enka about drinking and watching the snow softly falling down to enter a stupor to forget about those romantic issues. What helps is Itsuki's slightly gravelly and reassuring tones as the protagonist internally grapples about an ardent love that hasn't been consummated quite yet for some reason. Chiaki Oka（岡千秋）came up with the tender melody while Miyuki Ishimoto（石本美由起）was the lyricist.
Meanwhile, I'll just keep enjoying my time inside my abode for the rest of today while figuring out how the heck I'm going to be navigating through the white mountains in my neighbourhood tomorrow.
Looks like Youtube, doesn't want me to see the video or listen to the song this time around! Too, bad for them because I already have this song on one of my playlist. So, this time I get the last laugh, ha, ha ha! Oh, by the way do you change your tires every winter? We have to do that here in the blue forest.
ReplyDeleteYup, we have to change our tires every year between summer and winter tires. There are folks who use the supposed all-season tires, but the experts warn against that since those all-season tires simply don't have the best traction on snow and ice.
DeleteThanks for the info. I had been wondering if most places in Canada got enough snow to warrant the practice or year tradition of chaging to snow tires.
DeleteI was kinda wondering myself but do people in your neck of the woods still use chains on their tires?
DeleteTire chains aren't very common in my neck of the woods or forest, at least not for passenger vehicles. I have really only seen snow ploughs/bulldozers with chains on their tires. However, I do know that sometimes tires may be required for some expressways, as there are specific places for people to pull over to put their tire chains on before they go too far on the expressway. https://www.c-nexco.co.jp/en/special/snow/info.html
DeleteTo be honest, I was surprised that the Japanese were still using chains on a widespread scale up to the 1990s at least, because although I remember seeing Canadian Tire catalogs showing chains being sold as a child, I think by the mid-1970s, they'd been replaced by winter tires.
DeleteMy family here has only used winter tires as far as I am aware, but chains and some kind of snow glove for tires exist and are sold at some places in Japan. I guess snow chains might be a little quicker to put on than snow tires?
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