Snow in Tokyo

It snowed today in Tokyo. I love taking the train into work when it snows, because the scenery is just beautiful. Many of the suburbs around Tokyo consist of 2 or 3 story modern-traditional houses and apartments. They all have traditional Japanese tile roofs, which look beautiful in the snow. From the passing train you can look down on the jumble of narrow, twisting alleyways and snow covered roofs and even see the occasional Japanese temple.

The houses are packed together tightly with low walls around them, but everyone still tries to find space to plant a tree or two in their yard. Since space around Tokyo is so scarce, there are a lot of odd shaped lots with small houses at strange angles to the surrounding walls. The combination of alleys, angled walls, random trees, and tile roofs gives the cities a very old and organic look.

At work yesterday, everyone told me to go home early because a big snow storm was expected and the trains might stop running. Of course, we only go a couple of inches of snow, but I think they just wanted to use the snow as an excuse to leave work early.

During lunch I was able to walk over to the Imperial Palace (only a block from the office) and see the giant stone moat walls and traditional guard houses covered in a light dusting of snow. It's really amazing to be able to watch koi and swans swimming in the water and see trees as far as the eye can see behind the ancient stonework, and then turn around and see nothing but enormous modern glass and steel skyscrapers. Tokyo is definitely a city of interesting contrasts.