A White World

This morning I woke up to find a white world. Snow was forecast to start later in the morning, but at 7:30am it was so silent and bright that I knew must have started snowing much earlier. Sure enough, when I looked outside there was about 4cm of snow covering everything.

Snow is rare in Tsukuba - just 2 or 3 times a year. I'm still debating whether or not I should buy snow tires for my car. Today I don't need to worry as I don't have to work so can stay at home all snug and warm! Well, actually I am waiting for it to stop snowing so I can go outside to make a snowman. The field by my house should be a great place to find lots of good snow!

You can see the field in the pictures, as well as the "God's Tree". I don't know what kind of god, but you can see a small hut at the base of the tree with a rock in it. The rock is the physical sign of the god. If you look really carefully, you can see that the rock has been decorated with a straw rope and lightning shaped paper. This paper is a mark of a Shinto god. My guess is this god is for good fortune for agriculture but I don't really know. The tree stands in a field and behind that are many rice fields. I guess the owner of the field and/or other farmers must have put the paper decoration on the rock as it appeared just before New Year.

Such kinds of sacred rocks are often found under big trees here and there in Japan. These are not to be confused with small stone Buddhist statues called Jizo. Next time I see a Jizo I'll take a picture and tell you all about them.