Winter

Snow began falling in late November or early December and wouldn't completely leave the ground until early March. On the left, the view from my apartment window for several weeks of the year. On the right, a shot of the street just outside the front door of my apartment building after a particularly nasty blizzard.

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Needless to say, bike riding was better left for warmer days.

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I walked to school each morning, rain or shine...

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...though not in my slippers, which waited patiently for warmer weather.

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A haunting picture taken during the winter solstice. Despite the darkness, this was actually shot during the afternoon. Tottori's notorious thick cloud cover was very effective in blocking out the warmth & light from the sun for days (sometimes weeks!) at a time.

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One of my favorite winter pictures, the one below was taken in the village of Hawai (enjoy the irony). That fact that Tottori had a small village called Hawai was the source of endless amusement; Japan's Hawai could not have been any more different from the American version. I love the effect of the snow over rippled rice fields with the sinister black sky in the background portending more of the same to come.
It was a sight I grew all too familiar with.

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Feeble attempt at making a snowman. Sluggish from wearing what felt like 50 lbs of extra clothing to try to keep warm, in three long winters I never did muster up the energy to make anything larger than this little fellow.