Weather in Japan
 

Northern Honshu and Hokkaido get a lot of snow but the mountains are a little smaller. This winter has been fairly mild in the Kanto region from what I have heard. El Nino is to blame for this. The best thing about Hokkaido's weather though, no rainy season.

This year, the snow over all of Japan has been fairly mild..

But the differences between northern Japan and southern Japan are quite drastic. The southernmost areas (For example, Okinawa) are warm all year round, while the northernmost areas are cool even in the summer.

Where I live, near Nagoya, we had one day of snow this year. Maybe two, as we were out of town for a few days. Last year, we were covered in snow half the winter.

Personally, I prefer the snow. For some reason, it seems to absorb the cold. I was happy to be outside when there was a ton of snow out there, but I hate dealing with the extreme winds we have this year. Right now, my windows are shaking, and it sounds like I`d fly away if I went out. Unfortunately, I`ll have to test that in a bit...

Yeah, when the wind comes gusting down from mountains and across the area of Gunma I live in, it is horrible. You can't even ride your bike into it and sometimes even walking becomes difficult.

You should be feeling "Haru Ichiban" (First winds of spring) about now or in a short while. I remember those winds well while living in Kanagawa-ken. They would come every year in early to mid March like clockwork. Once Haru Ichiban arrived you knew winter was over and warmer days were near. It was a welcome sign even though it was quite difficult to ride the bicycle on some days!

I can only dream of these winds being a one season thing... I don`t know what it is about our place, but it seems our building makes a wind vortex that tears through our yard and veranda. Seriously, it`s an all year round thing.

And in typhoon season, the wind vortex becomes so strong you can actually *see* it. It will seriously rip your clothes off... I`ve had to go out in it to rescue gardening equipment (metal, heavy stuff) that was flying away, and my shirt was almost pulled up over my head.

so the north is colder than the south basically?