Here in Toyama and in the northern part of Japan there are places that get a lot of snow. Because the temperature stats close to freezing the snow here can be really heavy. To protect the trees and bushes people use ropes and bamboo pled to help protect trees and bushes from breaking due to the eigt of the snow. Even though there is no snow yet it is pretty cool to see all the trees with what looks like a cone around them.
(For the trees they attach a bamboo pole to the trunk extending up into the air. Then they attach ropes to this pole and the other end of the rope is attached to branches to hold them up so the snow doesn't snap them)
All around town, at businesses and people's homes the trees and bushes are like this. This only leads me to believe there will be a lot of snow here as the other 2 places that we were at in Japan didn't have this (they were a little warmer and didn't get much snow).
