Niigata

 Icicles started forming on the outside of one of the windows in my apartment. They did not last very long because they were hanging from snow which eventually fell.

 I was very surprised when I was taken to my apartment not long after I arrived on campus. They had already placed a sign with my name outside the door. My office also had a nameplate in place when I arrived.

 This is the entrance to the hallway that runs the length of the married students' housing. I use it everyday as a short cut that keeps me out of the falling snow. There are two interesting things in the picture. On the right side of the building there is a red and white pole. This is a marker so that the snowplows know where not to plow. The other is the ladder up the side of the building. When the snow gets really deep, someone has to go up on the roof and push the snow off, otherwise the building might collapse from the weight of the piled up snow.

 This is the parking garage that is outside my apartment. The last stall at the far end is where we leave our trash.

 This is the other exit from the hallway in the married students' dorm. On this day the snow was knee deep because I was going to work before the snow removal crew arrived. I got snow on my pants - all the way up above my knees.

 After wading through the snow in the last picture, I turned left and found that this walk had had the snow removed already, so it was easy walking.

 The snow along the sides of the walkways develops some strange shapes which change everyday because the workers are constantly knocking the snow down into the drainage ditches where the water from the spray system carries it away.

This is a map of the campus. I live in the building on the bottom left and my office is on the third floor of the building on the extreme right. The main buildings where the classrooms are located is sort of in the middle and the cafeteria is to its left. The gym is in the back center and the buildings on the left are student dorms. I have never been in this area so I have no idea what the student rooms are like.