Moi! I’m Keikei. These days, the daytime gradually gets longer and longer, and it becomes warmer, so I’m pleased. Actual spring is just around the corner. In this article, I gonna write about my feelings toward the Finnish winter from a Japanese perspective.
Change in the weather and temperature
Many Finnish people say that this winter was lucky because there was more snow than in recent years and actually it started to snow at the end of last October as far as I remember. But in the next month, November, it didn’t snow but rained too much in addition to having got darker and darker. From around the end of November, it got a harsh cold and started to be under 0°. I remember when I got up in the morning to find that snow covered the outside in a single night very clearly like magic! At the end of December, a cold wave hit Helsinki, and it got around -18° in the daytime, which continued for a few days although the temperature had changed a bit during that time. The under picture was taken at that time. I was so impressed to see the frost-covered trees, which enabled me not to complain about the coldness so much.
After the new year began and at the end of January, it got warmer suddenly and even more than 0°, although it turned cold again. At that time when it was a bit warmer, the snow on the surface of the load melted, which made kinds of floods and numerous puddles everywhere; my Finnish friends described the situation as the dark side of Finnish winter. I struggled with walking at that time, having tried to avoid them as much as possible. In addition, as only the snow on the surface of the load disappeared, a frozen load under it appeared instead, which was so so so slippery! Actually, the load condition continues until today and I feel how stubborn it is!
Clothes and tips to survive Finnish winter
Surviving Finnish winter requires me to have numerous layers of clothes, which are more practical as you see in this picture. For me, there was no place to make me fashionable although I like clothes(tears). There are a few tips I gained through this winter.
- The temperature between outside and inside is totally different, so you have to wear clothes you can easily wear or slip.
- It snows and rains very much and sometimes very windy, so it’s better to wear a waterproof outer with a hood instead of an umbrella.
- Even though my boots are mountain boots, coldness crawls up from my foot fingers when I stay outside longer than half an hour, so the thermal foil insoles should really help to stay warm outside.
- A winter hat that can cover your ears is a must, otherwise you will have headaches or harsh pain in your ears.
My hobby in winter
I’m from Osaka, southern Japan, where it hardly snows, so I’m very excited to see tons of snow in Finnish winter. Different from the weather in winter in Osaka, it’s almost always desperate cloudy here, but it makes me much happier when it sunnies. The clear and beautiful blue sky matches the white snow very well and I really like that scenery. After I came here, I came to appreciate the nice weather more and enjoy walking around because even though here is the capital of Finland, I’m surrounded by plenty of nature. Recently, I’ve been into just walking around as my mood dictates and discovering new favorite places. Here is a picture of my favorite place, the government park.
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