preparing for snow

I guess it's been almost a year! When I came here all the terracotta walls were covered with straw jackets. In this picture there are rice-chaff ropes hanging from the old walls. They have already started putting up the straw mats in some places. They look like a long, continuous hanging carpet.
fig 9.1: Kanazawa on a wet autumn day. This is the Sumurai district. On the left, you can see the ropes hanging on the wall. The Before shot.


fig 9.2: This blood-red tree is ready for winter.

The other thing they are doing is tying ropes to the branches of all the trees. I suppose this protects them from breaking under the pressure of heavy snow. Although Kanazawa doesn't get as much snow as most of Canada, the snow here is wet and heavy. Also, I think that the pyramid shapes formed from the ropes is some kind of symbol of Kanazawa. It does look pretty and there's the added benefit of the whole city smelling like straw. It's actually a really comforting smell.