Okay, I admit it, the boots look silly, but so does sprawling on the pavement.

The worst part about getting to school after a big snow storm is the ice leftover because the city didn’t clear the sidewalk and because large sections of road don’t have sidewalks, just piles of icy slush.

I dug out my ancient hiking boots which, oddly, have actually been hiking a few times, but which I mostly use for snow. They are leather with random bits of Gore-Tex and I think I got them from REI when I was still in Niigata, making them over 16 years old.

Note: That tells you how infrequently they get used. They are the first shoes I ever bought over the internet and I was very happy they fit, which is why I’ve kept them so long.

The worst part of the walk is usually from our apartment to the main road, but today, the sidewalk was the easiest part of the walk. The worst part was the random glaze-ice traps along the street to our closest station and on the sidewalk from the station near the school to the school. I did a few fancy side steps, one forward moonwalk and one less than graceful Telemark-style slide.

I thought about taking the bus, but the lines were too long.

The worst trip to the school ever, though, involved frozen ice. We’d had snow, the snow had melted, then the snow had frozen and been topped, right before the start of the morning commute, with freezing rain. The streets and sidewalks both were a frozen mess. I trekked, in small steps, across seemingly endless fields of frozen slush before arriving at school.

About five minutes after I arrived at school I was told that school was delayed. A few minutes after that I was told school was cancelled because a lot of teachers couldn’t make it back in. Luckily, my English colleague arrived, and after a few minutes of him venting about Japanese drivers and ice, he gave me a ride to the station,

I managed to get home in one piece, but I was too exhausted after that trip to actually enjoy being home. I think ended up taking a nap.