Looks like it's gonna be a white Christmas.

Record snow causes injuries, blackouts across Japan - MSN-Mainichi Daily News

Most of Japan has been really snowy for the past couple of days. It doesn't usually get this bad until mid-January.

Heck, Kagoshima got over four inches of snow today, in addition to the inch or so that fell last week, breaking the December snowfall record that has stood for 88 years. The evening newscast had a shot of the Kagoshima City trams running very, very slowly past Tenmonkan, and a lot of cars spinning their wheels. (No one in Kagoshima knows how to deal with snow, it seems.)

Times like this, I really wish that building practices like, say, insulation, or central heating, had caught on nationwide. (sigh.)