We got another couple of inches of snow today. Harper and I went out for a longer sort of walk; I finally got her a dog coat (she looks REALLY cute in it) that she tolerates, so we were able to do more than just zip around the block. I still let her lead the way, so when she gets cold she just turns toward home.

The snow that had fallen today was still covering many of the Christmas lights around the neighborhood, both the low bushes and on the eaves of houses. It's a really beautiful thing to see the lights glowing under a layer of snow. Very peaceful and magical. I don't think I've ever seen that before to this extent, either due to lack of snow around Christmas or lack of Christmas lights. It made me feel grateful, yet again, to be living in such a wonderful place. I would have taken a picture, but there's no way a photo could have done it justice.

It also reminded me of one of my favorite evenings in Japan. My friends and I had gone snowboarding in the mountains. The snowboarding itself was very memorable; the mountains overlooked a huge alpine lake, so as you're starting down the slopes you look out on this blue lake not too far in the distance. Anyway, that evening we decided to go to an onsen in the middle of the mountains. To get there, after winding through mountain passes, you have to park your car along the road. Then you walk about a mile along a ravine with a river, and then over a bridge. Finally you get to a tunnel of snow, except without a roof. It snows so much in the mountains that to get to the onsen the owners have to keep digging this tunnel, and by that time the walls were well over eight feet tall. They had lined the walls with Christmas lights (the Brits called them fairy lights, which seemed especially appropriate), and for the rest of the walk to the onsen, the only lights are these Christmas lights. The onsen itself was wonderful, it was an outdoor one, so you basically have to disrobe in a changing room (the changing rooms and the pools are separated by gender), then scurry through the snow and ice to hop in the steaming water before you freeze. If you get too hot, you can just reach out to the side of the pool and scoop up some snow to plop on your head. That was a good night.