Urban Jungle

The picture below is fairly typical of what a big Japanese city looks like. Not exactly eye candy is it? With no parks, green areas, or barely even a tree, Osaka city sprawls out as far as the eye can see. If they could flatten the mountains and build on them, they probably would. As much as I like a hustle and bustle of the city, I happy to be living somewhere that is encriceld by mountains, rather than concrete.

In other news, just when the snow shovels had been put into summer hibernation, the winter makes one last stand. Everybody thought that spring was here to stay, and several of the low altitude ski areas have already closed. But I am now happily eating my somewhat premature words claiming that the last of the big snow dumps had been and gone. There’s currently about 40cm of fresh on the ground, and it’s still coming down strong. This means spring conditions are out, and powder is back on the menu, for a few days at least.