For a good 10 minutes today, we had snow. Large, white fluffy flakes fluttered slowly to the ground.

For a few moments today, Naruto was a winter wonderland.

We get very little snow in recent years in this part of Japan. When I first came to Japan to this area (Shikoku) we would have the ground covered with white stuff a few days out of the year. There was enough for a simple quick snowball fight. Enough to make a small snow person. Enough to, if you so pleased, make a quick snow angel.

No more. I’ve heard that there was even a bit more snow that fell here years and years before I came. My guesstimate is that the Earth is warming.

Would I like snow all winter? No, probably not. But I have memories (both good and bad, but I’ll relate the good ones) of the nice things about the snow. The sounds of walking on it at different temperatures. The smell. The views, especially later at night when it’s quiet and everything is softened (both is sight and sound) by the snow. The taste of snow as it fell from the sky, or when skiing and I would sometimes take a quick bite of some fresh snow. The feeling of snow - soft/fluffy/wet/dry/crunchy, and so on. I miss those things.

Today we had the promise of snow fun for a few minutes. It was enjoyable for me.