Just Another Day in Winterland Hokkaido

 

Early that morning, I noticed the wind first. Even from inside the apartment, I could hear it—low and restless, swirling around the building as if testing its strength. A snowstorm was clearly on its way. I checked the weather report and saw the wind speed: 16 kph. Surely, I thought, classes would be suspended.

I waited. And waited.

No message from the school.

Which meant only one thing: school was still on.

AI photo representation of my driveway to work.

The drive to work felt unreal. My car swayed left and right, pulled by the force of the wind as if it had a will of its own. Along the road, I saw children struggling forward, heads down, backpacks acting like sails. Even the crows—usually so confident—were tossed into the air, helpless as they tried to cross the street.

AI photo representation of a child walking to school in the middle of the storm.

And yet, there we were. Whether we liked it or not, work awaited.

As the hours crawled by, the weather worsened. The wind intensified, the snow turned wet and heavy, and soon the world outside disappeared into a blur of white. From the classroom window, there was nothing to see—no road, no buildings—just an endless snowfall swallowing everything in sight.

My Japanese co-workers remained calm, moving through their routines as if nothing were out of the ordinary. But every now and then, they would glance toward the window, and in their eyes I caught it: fear, quickly hidden, quietly acknowledged.

Still, no one said a word.

Because here, this is normal.

Just another winter day in Hokkaido. ⛄

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