Life in the World's Snowiest City Part 1 | Aomori, Japan
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- I don't know why this surprised me, but Japan is a snowy place. Like it straight-up has the top-three snowiest cities in the world.
** World's Snowiest City Part 2 • 20 Feet of Snow | Worl... **
** World's Snowiest City Part 3 • Why Live Here? World's... **
I visited Aomori city, the snowiest city in the world to show you what life is like there. In part 1 you'll see how Aomori keeps its streets clear with its massive amount of snow plows, snow blowers, and dump trucks.
Special thanks to Aomori city for organising some of the shoots (note: it's not a sponsored video though)!
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As someone who grew up and still lives in a warm country where it basically doesn't snow, I find this extremely interesting. Everything looks BEAUTIFUL but also very inconvenient at the same time.
Fresh snow looks and feels great, but it gets old really quick. Takes me about a month to wish spring would come sooner.
Just replace "snow" with "sand" and another part of the world and consider all the "fighting nature = nature always wins in the end" consequences. There's got to be a more elaborate solution in both cases?! ;-)
Just keep in mind in teh world more ppl die of heat stroke then freezing to death. Heat is more dangerous than cold.
Wow. As someone who lives in Mie prefecture (central Japan), where it doesn’t really snow, it really makes me appreciate how ‘climatically diverse’ this country is. Now, I’m originally from Canada too, and I admit I sometimes miss the snow. But…maybe I should just be content to drive up to Shiga or Gifu for the weekend when I need my fix.
Yeah, that's one of the things I really like about Japan, how you can get such different climates by travelling a little bit. But yeah, you can definitely get your snow fix if you got to the right spots. I love snow so I was like a kid in a candy shop over there!
@@LifeWhereImFrom Yeah, it looked like a lot of fun!
I knew a woman who grew up in Okinawa, and she said it was very tropical - running around in t-shirts on Christmas Day. Japan is remarkably diverse for such a small country (compared to Canada or China).
i would agree...japan has such a diverse weather that if you don't like snow go down south..want to enjoy for the weekend go up to sapporo and what not up north..
@@user-no2mz9hl4f small, but very long!
As a resident of Québec, Canada (5th place in the list), I can tell the guys clearing the snow in Japan are very lucky to not have to deal with cars parked in the streets. That makes it so much easier for them to cleanup everything efficiently. Here, we have to switch parking side every second day so they can pass to remove snow, meaning most streets are only half cleaned for at least the next 4 following days (and that's if there's not another snowstorm until then). It is also a logical nightmare to find parking spots when half the spaces are not available because of piles of snow. It's very nice to see how different locations handle these large quantities of snow very differently.
Same, I'm from Michigan (we've got cities around the 8th or 9th o the list) and I'm really envious of the no parking thing. That's got to be the number one reason they can handle things so efficiently, makes organizing so much easier. No getting your car plowed in has got to be great too
UPDATE: Watch PART 2 th-cam.com/video/HDNN9W_wnEk/w-d-xo.html and PART 3 th-cam.com/video/tZvtBkKz73o-/w-d-xo.html I tried to film this series in 2020, abnormally low snow levels. I tried again in 2021, pandemic. In 2022 third time was a charm and I finally was able to film in the snowiest city in the world, Aomori! Please enjoy part 1! - Greg
Would be cool to see how they deal with the asphalt and pot holes in the city for part 2!
I live in Oirase in Aomori
@@andresaliba Good question. I'll ask and see, but my gut is that the temperature fluctuation isn't very extreme in the main city parts, so there's not a big deal with potholes. I don't think it every really gets colder than a few degrees below freezing there.
@@LifeWhereImFrom That's a good point, though I was imagining the sheer amount of trucks and snowplows used would destroy the asphalt, but tbh I have no experience with this.
global warming "climate change" is gonna be so much fun for these people. I can't wait to never plow again!
My husband is from Hirosaki, Aomori. We go there every winter and I lived there for years. Go there next year! The temperatures are lower and snowfall is very consistent. Especially towards Iwaki Mountain. Highly recommend.
I had absolutely no idea Japan got this much (or any) snow!
In the skie world we also call it japow, for all the powder japan has
I've spent a lot of time in Aomori City and made videos about it. The piles of snow are crazy. The first time I went, I thought there were hills everywhere. I didn't realize it was just piles and piles of snow.
9:04 the spice must flow as well..... Great job on this! So funny to see snow being dumped in the ocean. And snow drift screens, amazing.
Hi from Czech Republic. I miss snow so much. Nowadays it snows less and less and winter is usually warmer than it was in my childhood.
Here in Helsinki, Finland, we used to dump most of the snow in the ocean. Now it is avoided as much as possible, since dumping in the ocean puts a lot of trash, salt and oil straight in the ocean.
Everything generates pollutants, and if the snow isn't dumped in the ocean, it at least has a chance to ... not be there.
I was wondering about this. The roads aren't salted or sanded as far as I know, but they do have some kind of melting agent that they do use which I'm trying to get the name of. How does the snow get taken care of in Finland then? If you put it on land, everything would get into the soil, no?
@@LifeWhereImFrom from what i know the snow is now brought to snow melters where the water gets filtererd and put into the ocean.
How about melted snow run-off from the streets that make their way into the sewer or water-ways? Here in Maine US, they unfortunately salt and sometimes dump into the river. If there were any environmental concerns, they're probably rationalizing that if the salt and other chemicals eventually drain into the rivers and oceans as snowmelt, why not just dump it as needed? I'm curious how that's dealt with in Finland.
@@sphynx2918 Might do it like NYC and just have those snow melters where they chuck em in via loader.
In Finland they actually ban using the salt during the winter. From what I understand, most of the snow is just pushed on side of the road, and in the places that is not possible, they gather it and dump it to designated snow dumping area similar to Japan. This however leaves so much snow behind on less populated roads, that every winter is like living nightmare when you try to use the car (and yes those cars get stuck so often parking lots etc).
That sunset was indeed beautiful. It looked like melted gold, and was especially pretty with the frosted trees in the foreground.
When I lived in Northern Illinois they would just have plows push the snow to the side of the road. Since the roads here have shoulders it would primarily just block the shoulder, but to get roads passable quicker they would often only clear one lane each way until they had more time to come back and clear more. Same thing with parking lots, they would just plow to one area of the parking lot building a huge snow mountain. The only time I saw dump trucks hauling away snow was when we had a blizzard. Driving over compacted slush like that bus was doing was always the worst, second only to ice of course. During morning commutes I would often see a car or two in a ditch along side the road from someone trying to drive too fast, roads there had speed limits of 50MPH and no reduction for the Winter months, people were just left to drive whatever speed they felt comfortable with. You would have people going everything from 20MPH to 50+MPH. Intersections would always have tons of slush from idiots that didn't clear their cars off before driving. They would stop at red lights and all the snow would fall off there making it slippery for everyone else.
The now there is no joke. Lived in MIsawa for 11 years and saw first hand over and over again how much snow comes down on that city. Thanks for highlighting the awesome city of Aomori!
this is crazy! we got a ton of snow here in toronto in january, around 45 cm and i thought that was a ton. really interesting to see how they deal with so much snow. i love your channel Greg because you make really interesting videos on topics i'd never think about
While in Erie, PA for grad school, they would dump cleared snow either in the forest or into lake Erie. Huge snow banks along the streets in your video reminded me of living there. Erie gets on average about 100 inches or 2.54 meters annually (ranked 3rd in the US for average annual snowfall). Great video!
I live in Canada and when they clear the snow from the roads they always leave huge snow banks in the intersections on residential streets banks so high you can’t see oncoming traffic so there’s a huge influx of accidents. Also they are always still clearing during rush hour and it gets in the way of everyone. very frustrating
Here in Canada it snows and temperatures goes below- 15•. Aomori is the perfect place to enjoy snow. Temperatures rarely goes below 0•.
And -15°C are on good days, sometimes it goes down to -30° if not even lower. You start to hate snow when it freeze your face so much, but it did look pleasant in Aomori.
That is so interesting! Im from Quebec, Canada and I didnt even know that we are in the top 5!
Wow that’s amazing! We stopped for the night there in 2015, saw old snow at the station in April, but never had any idea that it was the snowiest city in the world!!! Lovely documentary, thank you :)
Snow dumping into the ocean is so beautiful!❄️
Really love this series, shows parts of Japan we would never see. Thanks
I’ve been living in Syracuse, NY for almost 9 years. We were consistently the snowiest city in the US for many years. The last 2-3 years however, we’ve had far less than usual, not even breaking 100 inches. Climate change? Very possibly. Just a cyclical change? We’ll see what’s to come in a few years. Even Rochester, just 90 minutes west of us, had more snow than us, which is unusual.
I personally experienced live snow fall🌨️❄️ in 2017 on my 31st Birthday🎂I will never be able to forget that moment. I was born n raised in southern India where it never ever gets cold let alone seeing snowfall
The fact is snow looks beautiful especially to those who have never seen or experienced it before but those who are so very used to it feel it as a burden considering that the risk of slipping and falling is high,vehicles skid on the road resulting in accidents,shops tend to be closed over all life becomes more demandingly difficult
I will be studying abroad in Hirosaki for a full year, so I will make sure to watch your 3 part series on Aomori very carefully! I'm super excited, and as someone who gets 0 snow in California (unless I drive 5 hours north to find it), I am excited to be able to walk to school and coffee shops and restaurants in the snow with friends I make. It will be a brand new experience, and an experience of a lifetime that's for sure! I really appreciate all your videos and your channel!
I live in Chicago and we get our fair share of snow in the winter (we got lucky this year, pretty mild). This is soooo fascinating, mainly because of how efficient Japan handles the snow clearing. Since we get our drinking water from Lake Michigan, Chicago has a snow dumping ground in the city (no dumping in the lake).
Cities i could live at very happily!
Watching the line of dump trucks behind the snow plows reminds me of the haul outs that follow the sugar cane harvesters.
Watching this was so ridiculously cool and educational
best way to spend 17 mins of my life. thank you for this beautiful video!
Το χιόνι το αγαπώ πολύ στην πατρίδα μου χιονίζει αρκετά τα τελευταία χρόνια γι'αυτό και εγώ σας προσκαλώ όλους το καλοκαίρι να έρθετε στην όμορφη πατρίδα μου την ΕΛΛΆΔΑ να απολαύσετε τον ήλιο τις καταπληκτικές παραλίες στα πανέμορφα νησιά μας το φανταστικό ΕΛΛΙΝΙΚΟ φαγητό και την υπέροχη φιλοξενία των ΕΛΛΗΝΩΝ που θα σας μείνει αξέχαστη . μπράβο πολύ ωραίο ντοκιμαντέρ το απόλαυσα 👍👍👍🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷
Funny coincidence. TH-cam served up one of your earlier "living in Japan" videos and I watched a few. I'm a Canadian who's been coming to Japan for about 20 years and lots of stuff resonated. Then I come across this one. Hilarious. I've been living in Aomori in the winters for the last 5 years, specifically to snowboard as much as I can at Hakkoda. Laughed out loud seeing some of the local regulars you caught on the ropeway (the old guy in flowery pink, the local fireman who wears all red snow gear…). I'm originally from Montreal, right in the zone of the lower half of those other snowiest cities you showed, so I feel right at home here. Wouldn't mind a poutine though. :)
I actually remember the specific night you shot the snow clearing operations. It's an amazing thing in the residential neighborhoods, sort of like you show. We have what my wife terms "snow shovelling party": the plows come through and all the neighbors come out to chop up the snowbanks and push them into the road. That night, we got pretty soaked. And yeah, it's always a surprise when they show up. We'll be in bed already and suddenly hear the bulldozers… "oh!" haha
I remember first snow in late october when I was glowing up. By late December it was on the ground and won't melt until April. That was before everyone had cars and snow on the road was cleared as soon as possible. If you ever seen old video of... I'll say 50 years ago and back. Lol
I am always amazed how other countries can cope with snow! Here in Scotland we can get 2 inches of snow and the country grinds to a halt in a matter of minutes. We have so much to learn from other countries!
wow surprised I didn't see this video till now! I guess the algorithm is finally recommending this to people
Yeah, it hasn't been doing well with the algo!
To chip and shovel away at the snow from the flatbed trucks in order to throw into the sea looks like great exercise + getting a nice view, at least from the eyes of a foreigner.
This was so fun to see/watch!!
We are from central Texas so almost NEVER see snow. Then we moved to Sapporo it was sooooooo COOL and COLD!! 🥶 a VERY BIG learning curve for us.
We have since had to move back to Texas but my now 2 yr old was born there and it was soooooo FUN to see him watching the vehicles and all the snow ❄️ because he doesn’t remember having to go to hoikuen and travel through all the snow haha 😂 thank you so much for the video!!!
Glad you enjoyed. Must have been a shock returning to Texas as well, no?
That is a lot of snow. Thank you for another great video.
'It dump trucks all the way down' ... sounds like my local yoga classes 😉
I love, love this series!!!! Great job 😊
My gratitude for your effort to bring life in the snow to me! 🙏🏼
I like to watch your videos before I go to bed as they help me relax.
P.S. Your sister in law is pretty!
I love your videos. I’m always keen to watch them when they come out. Keep up the good work.
This is so interesting. Never any snow in malaysia
Thank you for your wonderful video series. Very educational and entertaining.
By watching this video, I discovered that apparently I could watch hours of snow being cleared. There's something so satisfying about it, like cleaning windows or power cleaning pavements (sidewalks).
This is one place I wouldn't mind living even tho I was born, raised and still live in Southern California where it's summer 8 months out of the year.
Excellent content Greg! Love it! 🥰
It's like wandering in a gigantic tiramisu with huge amount of icing on it.
Aloha 🤙 from Honolulu! Cool video Greg. Thanks for reminding me when NOT to go to Northern Japan. BRRRRRR!!!!!
I used to live in Washington state on the PNW side. We didn't get snow every year, but when we did, the state didn't really have the infrastructure to deal with it. The main roads would have the snow cleared somewhat, but often it didn't last long enough to warrant the cost. Now that we're in the midwest in Indiana, we actually get snow. It wasn't super bad this year where we live, but there are plows that go through and clear the roads. Main roads get cleared regularly to keep them clear, and residential roads and rural roads will get plowed when they can. Our road got plowed once I think during the "snow storm" we got, and it was fine. A bit icy when the temps dropped, but it wasn't too bad and was drivable. The highways were completely clear. Parking lots were hit or miss. Some got plowed, and some didn't, and there was often salt on the ground to help clear the snow.
One of my best friends is studying to be a gardener here in Denmark, and she's told me she'll most likely need to just salt roads in the winter too, much like the gardeners clear snow. We obviously don't get nearly this amount of snow, so the work is a lot easier 😂
This is really fascinating as someone who lives in a tropical country. Amazing footage. Would love to experience that someday....just for a day or two 😄
Great content. I am impressed 👌
Excellent video
❤🌨☃️❤ show how bad snow clearing is in Vancouver... 😝
I put out a video on snow in Aomori too lol. I live in Rokkasho (about an hour and a half away from Aomori city) and yeah. The snow is crazy here. And I'm from Chicago and like you, thought I knew what a snowy area was.
awesome video !!!
finally a new documentary video!
I live in a port city that one year (2015) got an Aomori level of snowfall. They dumped much of the snow into a mountain on a seldom used wharf. I wondered why they didn't dump it straight into the harbour. It became clear in about June when the snow mountain finally melted. On the dump site there remained a large pile of abandoned bicycles, garbage bags and assorted trash. It took quite a few dump truck loads to clear the leftovers.
Would love too live in Aomori, my kind of snowy place, hardly get any her on the south coast of England. Awesome video btw. 🥰☺️🍻
Great video, as always! I live in North Dakota and we can get a lot of snow, too! Aomori looks like it could be my town during the winter. We may not be one of the snowiest states in the US, but we are the second coldest!
Had Been to Sapporo this march 6-8 2022 .love the place
I grew up in Ontario, Canada and lived about 600km from the Manitoba border. We'd normally get 10-15ft of snow annually and thought my region had it bad! I'll never complain about Canadian winters ever again. Hahah.
Quite reasonable to clear in the night or early morning (from say 3 o’clock), that’s what they do in Sweden too. On main roads too, the responsible authority watch prognosis carefully so they know when to get the snow clearing vehicles out, and on main roads they are massive, sometimes three abreast. You are not allowed to dump snow in the sea though, because it’s not clean, maybe different if you live buy the Pacific Ocean that’s enormous and some extra pollution might not matter.
Definitely something I noticed pretty quickly when I visited was the overhead cover on the sidewalks. Admittedly, I noticed more because it was August and the shade was wonderful, but seeing drifts taller than a person I can understand why they'd install them.
Valdez, Alaska is small, but is indeed an incorporated city. Please do your research and you will realize that Valdez Alaska is indeed the snowiest city in the world. I am an Alaskan and I lived in Valdez for nearly twenty years. Common winter snowfall totals are historically over 300 inches or more.
I looked it up but some say 270 inches on average and I really don’t know. And I still see many sources where Aomori is the city with the most snow fall. So, I don’t think he is wrong
Thanks Greg... so informative
Feels like home in Canada ;)
I am in Canada too and I thought we had the most snow in a city. Nortern Canada is pretty bad but this is intense considering Japan has a very high population density.
Wow the snow there is so beautiful! We don't get much snow in Australia so it's fascinating to see how a snowy city can operate :)
Where does it snow in Australia, besides on the Australian Alps? From a curious Canadian here! Cheers 🍻 🇨🇦 😊
@@waynemclaughlin8937 Hi! Mostly in the Australian Alps as you said. Higher peaks in the Australian alps are the main places where you can find snow resorts for downhill skiing/snowboarding, in both New South Wales and Victoria. Some smaller peaks are ok for cross country skiing or snow shoeing. Most towns don't receive enough snow to notice other than the few settlements higher up in the alps. Lower elevations can receive enough snow to settle on the ground maybe once a year. For example where I grew up it was an elevation of 782m and occasionally we had snow for a day or 2. There are some snowy areas down in Tasmania too! Sadly snowfall here is reducing as the years go on :'(
That's such an impractical place to have a city
They must enjoy the summer weather clear up to October before the snowy season. Besides ❄️❄️❄️❄️ Amori has the best night sky 🌌 view’s including Milky Way to. 👍📸❄️🇯🇵⛩🍀☘️🌸🌸🌸
Idk about you guys but snow fort fight will be epic in Aomori
Great video! And your sister in law is really funny lol
Great vid, nice images
Wow fascinating thanks!
So basically it's like living in Thunder Bay Ontario lol. It was amazing to see the mountain top however with the trees completely covered in snow.
I knew Japan has some very snowy places, but I hadn't expected it to have the snowiest place.
Im from Florida in the US… but live in Tokyo. My mind cant comprehend this is still Japan. Ironically every time I’ve been up north to Tohoku or Hokkido its either been in the Spring or Summer because it lines up with my breaks… it snowed in Sapporo a TINY bit in late april and I kinda lost my mind… but this… idk seems like a little too much. 😳
0:48 hey I know this place. Rambalac walked through here in his New Year video.
This is pretty much in the centre of Aomori.
Well, at least you have all that Canadian Winter driving experience to make things just a little easier...
I was surprised that a Canadian man in snowy city wouldn't wear Sorel boots. Named after the city of Sorel Quebec. The snow clearing looks a lot like this in Quebec. So from what you said, the city considers it a hassle if people throw their snow on the road even though they have nowhere to put it.
I had my snowboard boots, but those felt like overkill for a lot of situations. Living in Tokyo and Vancouver I haven't owned Sorel's for a couple decades.
your sister in law is a genuine delight:)
Interesting
man i like snow
I can already tell this in Yamagata or aomori
What's really weird for someone that lives in the US is that there's not a single piece of salt on these roads. It must be nice to not have your cars rot away.
Very different than the USA snow plows keep the roads clears at all hours.
I had to pause, make this comment and rewind after learning that Hakkode mountain gets THIRTEEN METERS of snow in a winter. Whaaat!
Snow? I live in Ibaraki and snow might as well be a unicorn.
I live in the city. I have mixed feelings on the snow, but overall I enjoy it.
Wait so the tallest mountain receives four stories worth of snow?
I don't get why people are calling Aomori (567cm) the snowiest city, it's only the snowiest prefecture capital, or snowiest city with 200k+ people. Hirosaki from the same prefecture gets 679cm, Fukagawa, Hokkaido gets 929cm and Myōkō, Niigata gets 1,061cm. Thought Myōkō's station doesn't seem to be in the actual city part.
being from Winnipeg.. I think id rather have this all winter, its been a rough season man
Seeing them dump all the perfectly good fresh water from a place that’s in a drought hurts me. But I bet they have enough fresh water as it is. Too bad we can’t transport water that easily
City that snows the most in Japan, also in Japan heat that made tennis players unable to play in tournaments
Siberians: you call that snow? We call that Sunday
I went to Jesus' Grave in Aomori-ken close to Golden Week in 2009. We got caught in a blizzard on our way to Towadako and I thought our car was going to get stuck lol We luckily made it down, but I still remember how much snow there was the next day when we went to Towadako. Meanwhile in Kakunodate and Hirosaki it was peak to just past peak hanami.
some say it's paradise some say it's hell
Greeting from Quebec City. Our clearing snow system look like the one n Aomori. With the operation done in the night. I still love watching those opération even though I’m an adult. We don’t dump the snow in the st Lawrence river because of pollution, with all the salt added on the street to make them less slippery.
Do they have snowshoes? You had quite a hard time walking on snow in the mountain!
They don't salt the roads in Aomori, but they do have a different chemical they use, which I'm trying to get the name of (I'll try and talk about it in part 2 or 3). Yeah, Japan has snowshoes. I didn't have too bad of a time walking in the snow in the mountain, but my sister-in-law on the other hand....